Aberpergwm is the site of a

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

in the Vale of Neath near Glynneath in south

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

Mine history

The site at Aberpergwm had been worked since 1811 as a series of drift mines, but full commercial working began from the 1860s when W. Williams opened a mine on the site. The mine was consolidated with the nearby Pwllfaron drift mine from 1880 with common ground works, under one owner Morgan Stuart Williams. A new drift was opened in 1906, giving the combined colliery access to the Eighteen Feet, Four-Feet, Nine-Feet, Three-Feet and Cornish seams. In 1920 the colliery was bought by Vale of Neath Collieries Co., which itself was consolidated into Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries Ltd in 1929. After World War 2 the mines were nationalised, and under

British Coal The British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation responsible for the mining of coal in the United Kingdom from 1987 until it was effectively dissolved in 1997. The corporation was created by renaming its predecessor, the National C ...

in 1950 the various drift mine workings employed 855 working the Eighteen Feet, Nine Feet and Three Feet seams. By 1969 the mines faced severe geological problems. As a result, only the White Four Feet and Cornish seams were worked. It was also decided as a possible final act to work the pillars left within the Victorian workings of the Eighteen Feet seam. A £750,000 investment in the early 1970s led to extraction from the Pentreclwylla Fault, but the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

closed Aberpergwm on 7 October 1985.

Present day

The drift mine was reopened in 1996 by local investors Anthracite Mining Ltd, with the mine estimated to have recoverable reserves of 7.6 million tonnes of high-grade

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...

. Bought out by UK-based Energybuild, in 2011 Energybuild was bought by

Walter Energy Walter Energy, Inc. was a publicly traded "pure play" metallurgical coal producer for the global steel industry. The company also produced natural gas, steam coal and industrial coal, anthracite, metallurgical coke, and coal bed methane gas. ...

of the United States. At this time, most of the coal was delivered to Port Talbot Steelworks owned by Tata Steel. The colliery suspended working the multi-entry system in the 18 ft seam and concentrated on the development of the 9 ft. In July 2015, after the

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

filing by Walter Energy, the mine ceased production and was placed on a "care and maintenance" basis. After three years of closure, in 2018 Energybuild was bought from the administrators by another group of UK investors. Today Aberpergwm is the only producer of high-grade anthracite in Western Europe, creating a high-carbon coal which creates a clean burn with low emissions, low sulphur, and high efficiency. Although some product is still transported to Port Talbot Steelworks, now most of the output is finely crushed to produce a carbon product suitable for use in

carbon filtering Carbon filtering is a method of filtering that uses a bed of activated carbon to remove impurities from a fluid using adsorption. Mechanism Carbon filtering works by adsorption, in which pollutants in the fluid to be treated are trapped inside the ...

Other

The ruined, derelict Aberpergwm House stands on the grounds, the former seat of the Williams family of Aberpergwm. The Healthcare Property Company Wales built a two-storey healthcare centre, which opened in 2019, on the site of the former washery. It is to provide integrated healthcare services for Glynneath,

Cwmgwrach Blaengwrach ( ; ) is a community near Glynneath and Resolven in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It is also the name of an electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough, which is a larger area than the Community. The principal ...

Pontneddfechan Pontneddfechan, also known as Pontneathvaughan (pronounced ) ("bridge over the Little Neath" in Welsh) is the southernmost village in the county of Brecknockshire, Wales, within the Vale of Neath, in the community of Ystradfellte and in the pri ...

Ystradfellte Ystradfellte is a village and community in Powys, Wales, about north of Hirwaun, with 556 inhabitants. It belongs to the historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire) and the Fforest Fawr area of the Brecon Beacons National Park, beside the A ...

, Rhigos, Resolven, Clyne and

Abergarwed Abergarwed is a village in the Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, south Wales. It is located in the Vale of Neath, in the electoral ward of Resolven, near the town of Neath Neath (; cy, Castell-nedd) is a market town and community ...

. It will be run by

Swansea Bay University Health Board Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB) ( cy, Bwrdd lechyd Prifysgol Bae Abertawe) is the local health board of NHS Wales for Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, in the south-west of Wales. Established as Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health ...

, the Vale of Neath Medical Practice and D R Cecil Jones Pharmacy.

External links

Aberpergwm Drift

References

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