Business Overview

UK COAL remains the largest producer of coal in the UK, and a significant supplier of energy to the UK’s electricity industry. In the last year we mined 8.1 million tonnes of coal, which represented approximately 15% of the total amount of coal burned in the UK. Predominantly our customers are in the electricity supply industry (“ESI”) and our production therefore represented 5% of total UK electricity supply.

At the 2007 year end, the Group had 4 deep mines and 6 surface mines and had 29 MW of power generation capacity from mines methane.

As a result of our heritage, we have a very large estate of 46,500 acres of land. This estate includes agricultural land which was originally acquired for its underlying coal reserves, and the sites of former mine and associated workings. The estate is largely focused on the UK coal fields along the A1/M1 corridor through Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, and in Northumberland, although it also includes some very significant sites elsewhere.

Given their location and former use, these sites are often very well connected to road, rail and electricity networks, and represent an excellent opportunity for development of both residential and employment buildings, helping to meet the long term needs of the UK.

As a result of our business and strategy, we make a significant contribution to the UK’s energy needs, to the local communities where our operations are based and to social and economic regeneration programmes.

JON LLOYD
CHIEF EXECUTIVE