THE death of Britain’s coal mining industry came a step closer yesterday as Thoresby colliery in Nottinghamshire ceased production with the loss of more than 300 jobs.

Thoresby’s closure comes less than two weeks after the sudden shutdown of Hatfield colliery in South Yorkshire on June 30.

Loss of the two pits leaves just one deep coalmine in production in Britain, Kellingley in Yorkshire. But Kellingley too is doomed — it will close by the end of the year.

National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Chris Kitchen said the final closures would mean the end of “a way of life.”

Mr Kitchen slammed successive governments for not only abandoning Britain’s coalmining industry, but for effectively sabotaging it by blocking grants which could have given the last three collieries a life-saving short-term boost.

Britain continues to import more than 50 million tons of coal a year from countries such as Colombia, which has notoriously used child labour in its mines, and from Russia.

In an article written exclusively for today’s Morning Star, Mr Kitchen said: “The British deep coalmining industry has for decades been in decline due to the unfair burden placed on fossil fuels under the guise of protecting the environment.

“Billions of pounds have been committed to support a new nuclear power station at Hinckley Point — the first of up to 15 that will be required to replace the coal-powered stations that will be forced to close.”

He said the people of Britain would suffer as a result of the Tories’ “short-term, narrow-minded” wrecking of Britain’s coal ining industry which was a “continuation of Thatcher’s legacy to close the deep mined coal industry.”

Thorseby, Hatfield and Kellingley collieries will each abandon millions of tons of high-quality coal reserves which could have been burned through the Carbon Capture and Storage system (CCS).

Instead CCS will be used to burn coal from abroad.

Thoresby’s closure comes as thousands of trade unionists head to this year’s Durham Miners’ Gala.

Wansbeck Labour MP Ian Lavery, who spoke to the Star as he arrived in Durham for the gala, said: “The sad reality is that the government has consistently refused to subsidise what’s left of Britain’s coalmining industry, a point-blank refusal to help British workers in a British industry.

“At the same time the government is supporting workers across the globe to the tune of billions of pounds. It’s ideology of the highest order from successive governments since Thatcher, determined to see the back of the industry.

“Meanwhile they’ve stolen over £700 million from the mineworkers’ pension fund. The whole saga is nothing short of an absolute outrage.”

Before the miners’ epic strike against pit closures of 1984-5, Britain had 180,000 coal miners working at 180 pits.

Activists at Hatfield this week launched a campaign to preserve the colliery’s pit-head gear, as a final memorial to a centuries-old industry which once powered Britain’s industrial revolution, railways, factories and power stations, and which heated the homes and workplaces of Britain.