70 new jobs as Maltby pit adds fifth shift

Maltby Colliery will soon mine coal around the clock after owner Hargreaves Services added a fifth shift to increase production at the mine.

Hargreaves, which yesterday reported strong growth in half-year profits and sales, said it was recruiting another 70 miners for Maltby, one of the country’s few remaining deep coal mines.

Maltby’s cutting equipment will operate for all but three hours in a week, which Hargeaves chief executive Gordon Banham said was unprecedented in the UK coal industry.

He said: “The equipment that cuts coal will be running at about 30 per cent more in terms of cutting coal.

“That will hopefully improve productivity.”

Maltby was beset by geological and equipment problems last year.

It is confident equipment issues have been resolved.

Hargreaves said sales surged 20 per cent to £253.9m in the six months to November 30, buoyed by higher coal and coke prices.

Pre-tax profits were up 9.6 per cent to £16.1m, and the group upped its dividend by 15.9 per cent to 5.1p per share.

Shares in the company dipped 2p to 916p, despite the update prompting brokers’ upgrades.

With global coal and coke prices lifted by strong Asian demand and flooding in Australia, Hargreaves said it is confident of a strong second-half performance and fixing new contracts at higher prices.

Hargreaves is also providing consultancy for a bank on a troubled UK deep coal mine, understood to be Hatfield near Doncaster.