Abernant Colliery was a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

in the

River Amman The River Amman () is a river of south Wales, which joins the River Loughor at Pantyffynnon. The source of the Amman is on the Black Mountain. The river name is said to derived from the Welsh word ' "pig, piglet", reflecting the way in whic ...

valley at Pwllfawatkin, north of

Pontardawe Pontardawe () is a town and a community (Wales), community in the lower Swansea Valley (). it had a population of approximately 7,172 in the 2021 Census for Pontardawe Parish, and forms part of the county borough of Neath Port Talbot. On the opp ...

and north of

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

West Wales West Wales () is a region of Wales. It has various definitions, either covering Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, which historically comprised the Welsh principality of ''Deheubarth'', and an alternative definition is to include Swa ...

Development

Abernant was developed by 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 ...

as one of the West Wales "super pits" alongside Cynheidre Colliery in the

Gwendraeth valley The River Gwendraeth () is a river in Carmarthenshire in West Wales. It has two almost equal branches that have their confluence in their joint estuary at Carmarthen Bay. The Gwendraeth Fawr ('large Gwendraeth' in English language, English) is ...

, an investment intend to keep economic coal mining a viable industry in the area. The £10million development began in 1954, with the sinking of two of the deepest shafts in the coalfield to allow access to the Peacock

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...

seam. The North (upcast) was and the South deep respectively. Two insets were also driven, No.3 at and No.4 at deep respectively.

Operations

Production started two years later, with coal extracted along the Amman Valley branch of the former

Llanelly Railway and Dock Company The Llanelly Railway and Dock Company was an early Welsh railway system. It opened its first short line and a wet dock at Llanelli in 1834, and soon went on to build a longer line from Llanelly to serve pits in the Amman Valley, and then on to Ll ...

, and on to the mainline at Pantyffynnon. In 1962, the colliery developed access to the Red Vein seam, resulting in the abandonment of the lower Peacock seams from 1963. The result was that during the 1970s, 900 men produced an average of 300,000 tonnes of coal per annum, from a system that covered with over of roadway. The colliery was one of the first NCB pits to deploy retreat mining, whereby roadways were driven to the limit of the coal reserves, and then the

coal face In mining, the face is the surface where the mining work is advancing. In surface hi mining it is commonly called pit face, in underground mining Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of th ...

s then worked towards the pit bottom.

Closure

Abernant closed in 1988.

Present

In September 2011, Waste Recycling Group Ltd submitted plans for the development of an

anaerobic digestion Anaerobic digestion is a sequence of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. The process is used for industrial or domestic purposes to Waste management, manage waste or to produce fuels. Mu ...

facility on the old colliery site. Proposed to run on

food waste The causes of food going uneaten are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during food production, production, food processing, processing, Food distribution, distribution, Grocery store, retail and food service sales, and Social clas ...

collected from 350,000 homes in

Bridgend Bridgend (; or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge over the River Og ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire (; or informally ') is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. ...

Neath Port Talbot Neath Port Talbot () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhon ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

and Swansea, the 2.3 MW facility would be capable of generating enough electricity to meet the demands of approximately 5,000 homes, and producing

fertiliser A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrition, plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from Liming (soil), liming materials or other non- ...

References

External links

Abernant Colliery @ WelshCoalMines.co.uk
{{Authority control Collieries in South Wales Buildings and structures in Neath Port Talbot Underground mines in Wales