I am looking forward to our 10th anniversary, what a day it will be for Tower after people said that we did not have a hope

Tyrone O'Sullivan, chairman of Tower Colliery

The miners' buy-out made history but at the time some experts warned it could hit geological problems and gave the pit a life expectancy of just six years.

Now almost seven years on it has landed a contract to supply 500,000 tons of coal a year for three years to Aberthaw Power Station.

Pit Chairman Tyrone O'Sullivan said: "The government, the DTI they all said there was a maximum of three years for Tower Colliery we have gone way past that mark and goodness knows where we will be in the future.

Life extended

"Remember profit for us is to make sure that we have got money in the bank for a rainy day to protect these 400 jobs.

"That is all profit means to us it is not for a yacht down the bay.

"I am looking forward out 10th anniversary, what a day it will be for Tower after people said that we did not have a hope."

In two weeks time the miners will begin work on a new panel of coal which should secure their position for 18 months.

Confident

Work is already going on to develop a number of other areas which should extend the pit's life by more than six years.

Last year Tower, which has 300 shareholders and 100 contractors, made �1.7m profits after spending several million pounds on development costs.

Workers at the site are optermistic about the mines future.

Kevin Williams, Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers said: "We knew that Tower Colliery could work, we were confident all along.

"The men knew the pit, they knew the faces and they knew they could work them and there was plenty of coal here."