ATH in administration

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ATH in administration

Post #1 by argie » Thu Dec 06, 2012 7:22 pm

Unfortunate news today that ATH Resources have been placed into administration. Hopefully the official receivers will be able to save jobs and keep their operations going.

Paul

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Re: ATH in administration

Post #2 by Mike d550 » Thu Dec 06, 2012 11:39 pm

That is bad news indeed :( , especially for all the workforce who are now facing an uncertain future in this economic climate! I agreed with Argie, I just hope the administrators keep the sites open for as long as possible and hope for a buyer.
Was there any particular reason for the company's demise? (falling coal prices, rising fuel costs).

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Re: ATH in administration

Post #3 by argie » Fri Dec 07, 2012 8:03 am

Mike, the press release says that the banks called in their loans with immediate effect but this has probably come from falling coal prices and rising fuel (derv) costs.
Paul

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Re: ATH in administration

Post #4 by IBH » Fri Dec 07, 2012 9:23 pm

argie wrote:Unfortunate news today that ATH Resources have been placed into administration. Hopefully the official receivers will be able to save jobs and keep their operations going.

Paul

I've been following the trials and tribulations of the UK coal sector recently- not jsut ATH but also UK Coal and Hargreaves Services.

ATH's principal trading sudsidiary Aardvark TMC continues to trade with the group holding company in administration.
An article and some background here:
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/business-news/firm-ready-to-invest-15m-in-embattled-miner-ath-1-5207985
http://www.scotsman.com/business/management/troubled-miner-ath-in-rescue-talks-with-better-capital-1-2679397
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Re: ATH in administration

Post #5 by Pblack » Fri Dec 07, 2012 10:33 pm

Very interesting, but apart from the jobs of the machine operators & the like, I think there is a bigger problem for the UK opencast scene if small mining companies start to go bust.

One of the arguments for the protest group set up in my own village of Measham towards UK Coals new Minorca site (which has only been going since spring) was the state of their (UK Coals) finances. Mainly, if UKC goes bust, who's going to continue a great big grey whole in the earth, then carry out all the land restoration after coaling as per planning requirments?

It will make things even harder for companies to gain permission to start up new sites if what we are seeing with ATH becomes more common, after all, who will want to chance things like this going wrong on their own doorstep, Parish councils, no. District councils, no. County councils, no. Even the goverment of the day surley wouldn't green light new schemes if this becomes more common? Risk a mining company going bust then invoice the Tax payer for cleaning up something they didn't want in the first place? Not a vote winner..

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Re: ATH in administration

Post #6 by IBH » Sat Dec 08, 2012 5:10 pm

It is usual practice in the industry to set aside money in a fund typically a 'Restoration bond' to cover the expected costs of restoring a site. I understand that these have become harder and more expensive to obtain with some providers ahving withdrawn from the market.


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Re: ATH in administration

Post #7 by nick lamb » Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:15 pm

I believe they had a 10 year deal with Drax at a fixed price.It was ok for 6 years but with rising fuel costs.........etc...need i say more?.Sad news indeed especially as we need all the home mined coal we can get....

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Re: ATH in administration

Post #8 by Mike d550 » Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:00 pm

It seems the whole opencast mining sector is a mess with costs of fuel rocketing, coal prices plummeting and cheap imported coal coming in by the ship load :thumbdown: certainly not good times!!!!!!
I keep hearing mutterings about UK coal being 100's millions of pounds in debt, could the same situation arise here where the banks either sell the debt on or demand their loans back? Only time willl tell.
If I remember correctly the cost of coal a couple of years ago was over £100-00 ton, what is the cost of a ton of coal mined in the UK today?

It does not help that everything that is applied for these days I.E opencast mines, wind turbines, phone masts cause massive protests by N.I.M.B.Y.S (Not In My Back Yard) but we need electricity and massive amounts of coal are still required in the UK for our power stations, maybe we should be taxing coal imports and help the UK mining industry!

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Re: ATH in administration

Post #9 by Pblack » Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:54 pm

Reading in the Sun City pages today, UK Coal has split itself into two, & will now be known as Coalfield Resources, with the company divided into a mining business & property firm. It seems without restructuring the business - hit by falling coal prices, UK Coal would almost certainly have gone into administration nxt year....

I really have a soft spot for the UK opencast industry, being lucky enough to have been on the Ace of Spades dragline etc, & growing up watching all the kit that used to work at coalfield north in Leicestershire where I grew up, (this is my sad hobby after all), but I have often wondered how long the likes of UK Coal can go on for in its current form. After all, when the goverment sold off the coal industry (mainly bought up by Budge at a bargain price), it was a heavily subsidised industry even back then. My theory is that, if Coal had such a good profitable future back then, the goverment (putting aside any political/union views & cospiracy theories aside) would have kept it going?

I really don't get this coal business at times, its mad that coal being mined probably in Poland, is then put on a dirty great ship (very polluting), sent over here, gets unloaded at the docks, then gets transported to a power station by rail, can still be deemed an echonomical & effecient way of doing things!!!

I am by no means an expert on these things, & as I state, dirty great mining vehicles/models & UK opencasting in particular is just my hobby if you like, so the above comments are just my layman's opinion on things....

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Re: ATH in administration

Post #10 by IBH » Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:16 pm

The Telegraph have a good piece on the completed restructure of UK Coal into Coalfield Resources PLC including an interview with Jonson Cox.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/9735823/UK-Coal-Britains-biggest-coal-miner-makes-final-bid-for-survival.html

The hope is that the mining arm can now achieve another 10 years of production, led by the newly-announced chief executive Kevin McCullough


I recognise fully that coal, as it is currently used to produce power, has a finite lifetime, because we have to decarbonise the energy supply chain,” he says. “This industry is towards the end of its life. Let’s give it a managed landing, rather than a catastrophic insolvency


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