South Yorkshire's Hatfield Colliery gets government funding

Hatfield Colliery was taken over by an employee benefit trust in September 2013

A South Yorkshire colliery is to get a £8m government loan to help develop a new coal seam.

Hatfield Colliery has been run by an employee-owned trust since 2013.

Brian Holland, the trust's operations director, said the money would allow the pit to continue mining until summer 2016.

The mine secured a £4m loan from the National Union of Mineworkers in September but said it needed additional funding to develop the seam.

Mr Holland said the first coal from the new seam is expected to be dug this month.

He said: "Without this support from government it will not be possible to complete the mining plan, which currently sees mining ending in 2016, and we would have been announcing an immediate insolvency with approximately 500 direct job losses."

The pit is one of just three deep coal mines left in the UK.

The other two, Kellingley, in North Yorkshire, and Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire, are scheduled to close this year.