Jobs axed at former record breaking 'superpit' colliery
UP TO 150 jobs are to go at Daw Mill colliery by the end of the year, as coal bosses struggle to make the one-time 'superpit' profitable once again.
The move is a stay of execution for the mine, whose future has hung in the balance since December 2011.
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Daw Mill, pictured in more profitable times.
Production has improved at the Furnace End site, but owners UK Coal insist the battle to keep costs down and keep production high is far from over.
Andrew Mackintosh, Director of Communications for UK Coal, said: "Production has improved, but we had lost a lot of production and we need to make sure the progress is sustainable.
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"We are pleased that production is up, but although there are positive signs, we are not out of the woods yet."
The 800-strong workforce at Daw Mill are aware of the redundancies, and consultations are expected to begin in the summer.
Around 200 of the workforce are contractors, and it is expected that some of those will be among the first to go.
UK Coal hopes to achieve most of the cutbacks by voluntary redundancies, but say they can't rule out compulsory redundancies.
Since Daw Mill first opened in 1965, it has provided employment for thousands of local men and was once considered to be one of the most productive pits in Europe.
Even as recently as 2008, its miners were record breaking, producing three million tonnes of coal in less than a year.
UK Coal is Britain's largest producer of coal, supplying around six per cent of the country's energy needs for electricity generation.
The group, based at Harworth, near Doncaster, has three deep mines located in Central and Northern England, with substantial reserves, eight active surface mines and employs around 2,500 people.
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