The country’s biggest coal mining firm said it had increased production over the past year despite disruption caused by a gas leak at its North Yorkshire mine.
UK Coal reported that it had extracted 7.2 million tonnes in the year to December 25, a three per cent increase on the previous year.
The company originally aimed to produce 7.3 million tonnes of coal in the year, but suffered a set-back in November when it was forced to shut Kellingley mine, south-west of Selby, following reports of dangerous levels of methane.
The deep mine was shut between November 23 and December 15 and cost the company between 100,000 and 200,000 tonnes in lost production.
Staff at Kellingley and its other two deep mines, at Daw Mill, near Coventry, and Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire, worked extra hours over much of the Christmas period to try to make up for the shortfall.
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