King Coal on way back with

The comeback of Richard Budge, the mining entrepreneur, was bolstered yesterday with
Before that, the 99-year-old mine, the scene of some of the fiercest battles of the 1984 miners’ strike, had been idle for 13 years. It remained so after the purchase by Mr Budge, but in April it started limited production.

The prospects for coal have been helped by resurgent prices and a pressing need for energy diversity because of the decline in North Sea oil.

Mr Budge owns 48 per cent of Powerfuel, the parent company of Hatfield, with 52 per cent owned by KRU, Russia’s second-biggest coal company and a big importer in the UK. The