Operated by the Hatfield Colliery Employee Benefit Partnership, the mine has been struggling to secure funds from the government or banks and faced closure. It is said to be the last deep coal mine in the country.
Hatfield Colliery chairperson John Grogan was quoted by theguardian as saying: "Without an injection of finance we would have been struggling to get into the new face, and this [funding] allows us to get into it and guarantee our future for 18 months.
"The National Union of Mineworkers [NUM] has given us a future. It’s hard for the deep mining sector to get money from banks."
NUM said: "It is the view of the union that there is a future for coal in the generation of electricity in the UK for years to come and that the coal burnt should be UK mined coal securing employment for miners in the UK not imported from Russia and Colombia or anywhere else."
Hatfield Colliery is one of the three deep-pit mines in the UK alongside Kellingley Colliery in Yorkshire and Thoresby Colliery in Nottinghamshire.
UK Coal operates the Kellingley Colliery and Thoresby Colliery, which have a workforce of around 1,300.
