Facing closure after nearly one century
Hatfield Colliery was established in 1916, and continued to operate until 1993, when it was closed on economic grounds. Production ceased in December of that year, however by 4 January 1994 the management team had expressed an interest in continuing operation of the mine and formed the Hatfield Coal Company. The firm started cutting coal at the site in July 1994.
In 1995, the Hatfield Coal Company reported an operating profit of £2.4m. The same year, Hatfield was the location for filming of the colliery scenes features in the film Brassed Off, which starred Pete Poselthwaite and Ewan McGregor. The firm went into receivership in 2001, and the pit was closed in August of that year, resulting in 223 job losses.
A few weeks later a new company, Coal Power, owned by Richard Budge, was formed and took over operation of the mine. In 2003, the company went into administration, and the mine closed again in 2004. Budge restarted the colliery in 2006 under his new company, Powerfuel, with plans to launch a carbon capture and storage (CCS) coal burning powerstation at the site.
In 2007, Russian coal producer Kuzbassrazrezugol bought a 51 per cent stake in Powerfuel and the mine began production again.
The company failed to find sufficient investment for its CCS project, and Powerfuel went into administration in 2010.
Powerfuel was taken over by 2Co Energy, which was backed by ING Bank, in 2011, and the CCS project was renamed the Don Valley Power Project.
In 2013, 70 employees were made redundant by site managers Hargreaves Services. At the end of 2013, the employee-controlled company Hatfield Colliery Partnership bought the mine from ING.