3,000 jobs have been safeguarded by the cash

But UK Coal said a further �10m for three other pits was still being reviewed because mining plans were being re-examined.

The government aid, aimed at helping the UK coal industry to survive, makes up 30% of the cost of a development project undertaken by the UK's biggest coal producer.

Aid has been accepted at Kellingley in West Yorkshire; Maltby in South Yorkshire; Thoresby in Nottinghamshire; Daw Mill, near Coventry and Harworth, north Nottinghamshire.

Kellingley Colliery, near Pontefract, has been given �7.2m of the money to open up new seams hundreds of metres below ground.

The money will allow UK Coal to lay around 20,000 metres of underground railways to gain access to 10 million tonnes of coal reserves.

The company was hoping to get �14m but say the windfall will give the pit a stable future.

The three collieries where aid is still being reviewed are Ellington, Northumberland; Rossington in South Yorkshire; and Welbeck in Nottinghamshire.

UK Coal announced recently it was seeking 70 redundancies at Ellington.