'Political victim' pit digs lowest price coal Colliery produces at a third less than imports but British Coal determined to close it

A YORKSHIRE coal mine which British Coal is planning to close next month was the lowest-cost pit in the country in October and is undercutting imports - including coal from South Africa and Colombia - by up to a third, the Guardian has found.

Confidential British Coal figures show that Bentley colliery near Doncaster, which unions were told this week would close on December 3, is a highly profitable pit and was producing coal at the end of last month at 88p a gigajoule - the standard energy measure - compared with an average coal import price of pounds 1.28.

Electricity generation costs from Bentley's coal, on these figures, would be far below those from gas and nuclear power.

It has also emerged that a senior British Coal manager has for the first time expressed strong dissent at the latest closure decisions. Alan Houghton, the Northern Group director, told a meeting of officials from the National Union of Mineworkers and the pit deputies union, Nacods, that...