Time to buy coal?

[Ballard]

I see from the news that UK Coal are mothballing some of their mines.

"UK Coal said it would stop mining at Harworth Colliery, near Doncaster, when the current coal seam was exhausted.

Bosses were investigating ways to make substantial cuts in costs at the mine and have not ruled out job losses, but UK Coal stopped short of announcing its full closure as "significant further reserves" existed in another coal seam. Instead, UK Coal said the deep mine would be mothballed "to maintain access to these reserves should it be economically viable to do so".

Now I know this is not totally PC - PO, but I would imagine that a few shares in 'UK Coal' might have some future value when the uk population needs to keep the power on and the houses warm.

http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&ned=&q=uk+coal

[grinu]

I'd agree there. Even though UK coal is high in sulfur and isn't expected to meet EU emissions standards, it's bound to be used if there's nothing else.

Maybe a good thing about living in the north-east, where many coal mines closed down not because of a lack of coal, but because of cheap imports.

Would much prefer to see renewables take over, but may as well be realistic.

[fishertrop]

I think the technology is almost there to make cleaner use of Uk coal.

Take dirty Uk coal, add this http://www.coal21.com.au/IGCC.php and this http://www.coal21.com.au/CO2capstore.php and mix in LOTS of knackered North Sea fields and you might actually have something viable.