Catherwood LibraryILR School

Two decades ago, Britain was shutting coal mines and coal miners were staging desperate and sometimes violent strikes in a vain attempt to save their jobs. Now, near-record-high energy prices on world markets are bringing the traditional work of mining back to Wales, one of the poorer regions of Britain. "It's an old dinosaur, a dirty word," said Rhidian Davies, a 30-year veteran of Welsh coal mining who is as surprised as anyone at the turn of events. "Nobody ever thought coal prices would be this high." Davies is the managing director of Energybuild, which is mining the Aberpergwm Colliery in the Neath Valley, the heartland of coal mining in south Wales. Aberpergwm was one of the many pits closed by the state-run British Coal in the aftermath of the miners' strike in the 1980s, but now it is open again, hiring men and talking about expanding.