RESTORATION is well under way for Crossgates’ Muir Dean surface mine site with the top soil placed and seeding about to start.

Working closely with landowners, Fife Council and the community, contractors Hargreaves Production Surface Mining are changing a landscape which once was a gaping 45-metre deep hole covering an area of 226 hectares back to arable farmland.

Colin Slater (below), area production manager for Hargreaves Production Surface Mining, said, “John Johnston, the farmer who owns Annfield farm where part of the mine was, has been left with a hole in his back garden that was 45 metres deep which needed around three million tonnes of overburden (stone and earth) to fill the void.

“The aim is to get a restoration plan delivered and by working with landowners we have achieved quite a bit so far – the top soil is in place and the seeding is about to start.

“We have worked very locally – a lot of the guys working on the site are Fife-based, there is a good workforce in Fife and we wanted to utilise that.

“We are also dispatching 1200-1400 tonnes of coal a day to Longannet. It is Fife coal going to a Fife power station – so it is working well.” Hargreaves have also come up with solutions for the Fordell Day Level – the water system in place during the mine’s operation.

Mr Slater continued, “What we had was a manmade drain. We needed to manage that, it was really high in iron, was red and had a sulphur smell.

“A solution for Fordell has been agreed with SEPA and the council and will be delivered as part of the restoration plan.” When former operators of Muir Dean ATH Resources went into administration in early 2013, landowners like Mr Johnston were left uncertain about the future of their land.

In November 2013, Hargreaves Production Surface Mining was contracted to restore the site.

Mr Slater continued, “We meet with the council each month to make sure that we are compliant with everything. We submit monthly figures so they know exactly what is happening.” John Johnston, of Annfield Farm, said, “I am very pleased as far it has goes, my plan for the future is to return it to what it was, farm it to what it was – that has always been the plan and intention to continue as before as mixed farming and arable for the beef cattle.

“The restoration is getting there and it is pleasing to see it on its way.

“It was a difficult time last year, very worrying when ATH were moving away from the site. From the April to the November before Hargreaves were contracted it was very uncertain regarding the reinstatement.”