Valuing the environmental impacts of opencast coal mining in the UK: The case of the Trent Valley in North Staffordshire

Abstract

The environmental costs which often accompany opencast coal mining are generally excluded from financial appraisals of opencast projects. We examine an opencast proposal for the North Staffordshire coalfield of the UK. A survey of local estate agents suggests that, as measured by the impact upon local house prices, the monetary environmental costs of the project could be sufficient to reduce substantially its economic viability. Moreover, opencast coal in North Staffordshire is almost certainly more costly to produce than equivalent deep mined coal. If the UK government wishes to support the market for domestic deep mined coal, it could do so at zero effective cost simply by restricting opencast production.