The shock of last week’s massive blow to Scotland’s mining industry will still be reverberating around the coalfield communities of Fife, and across much of the rest of the country.
Some 590 workers were laid off by court-approved liquidators as they moved to close down six pits run by Scottish Coal on Friday, including operations at St Ninians by Kelty, and the mothballed Blair House site at Oakley, as well as at sites in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.
Across the piece, 142 staff were retained to assist by securing the respective sites while prospective buyers were sought.
It is an irony probably not lost on many that the news came in same the week as the passing of Margaret Thatcher the former Prime Minister about whom many miners and former miners would not be lost for words was marked with some fanfare at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Without a doubt, there is still coal underground in Scotland. Recent surveys and planning applications in Fife at Loch Fitty, for instance, where controversial plans to drain the body of water have been challenged by the local community and other areas have shown as much.
The problem for the companies running these operations on a commercial basis is the cost of bringing that coal to the surface.
The retail price of coal has slumped as the cost of other fuels, including fuels used to drive the machinery used in coal mining, has stayed high.
Meanwhile, oil and gas the other underground hydrocarbons remain highly lucrative, allowing the industry to invest in the innovative technologies required to get to the hard-to-reach, and still profitable, deposits.
Scottish Coal’s parent group, the Scottish Resources Group, was unable to attract the investment it needed to continue.
The country’s only other coal-mining firm, ATH Resources, which runs the Muir Dean site near Crossgates, fell in administration in December under a pile of debt.
By March it was warning that any remaining shareholder value was “unlikely” to be maintained.
And yet, there is a chance this isn’t an industry facing its final throes quite yet.
Durham-based Hargreaves Services which calls itself “a leader in solid-fuel supply and bulk material logistics” bought a proportion of ATH’s debt several weeks ago.
As a result of this intervention a “review and restructure” of ATH and its sites is under way.
Hargreaves says it has identified ATH assets which could produce around one million tonnes of coal a year, and is currently undertaking “detailed due diligence” over what it coyly calls “a transaction”.
Hargreaves is positive about the coal market in the UK, saying it has “attractive fundamentals” and a “long-term future”.
It reserves particular praise for the support afforded to the sector by the Scottish Government.
Liquidators of Scottish Resources Group are still locked in negotiations over the future of its sites and assets, but it is expected that there could be significant interest there, too.
Meanwhile, the ambitious Hargreaves last week raised a total of £42.3 million through a new share placing, saying it expected to use the net proceeds to expand “its portfolio of surface mining assets”.
It is known to be seeking access to what it calls “the important Scottish market” for power station, industrial and household coals, and says it would only select sites which it expects to deliver an operating profit of between £5 and £7.50 per tonne at current market prices.
This week, the Scottish Government minister Fergus Ewing announced the creation of a Scottish Open Cast Mining Taskforce. Launching the initiative, Mr Ewing insisted that a sustainable Scottish coal industry could be maintained.
He added that liquidators KPMG believe mining operations could be maintained at the affected Scottish Coal sites.
Workers who have lost jobs will be offered assistance to find new ones, while the Scottish Mines Restoration Trust will help restore old open-cast coal mines, potentially creating hundreds of jobs during the process.
So minds are clearly concentrated on finding the best possible solution to the shocks battering the mining industry.
One potential buyer has already indicated its intentions, and it is clear that politicians are confident something can be salvaged from the current financial mess.
There may be life in Old King Coal yet but it is up to the accountants to tell us exactly where.