Miller Argent is a joint venture company between the Miller Group Limited and Argent Group PLC.

The company was created to develop the Ffos-y-fran Land Reclamation Scheme in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales and has its main office in South Wales, it also has offices in London and Normanton, West Yorkshire.

The Ffos-y-fran Land Reclamation Scheme

The Ffos-y-fran Land Reclamation Scheme encompasses the third and final phase of the earlier "East Merthyr Land Reclamation Scheme", phases 1 and 2 have already been completed.

The Scheme seeks to reclaim over 1,000 acres of acutely derelict and dangerous land which has been high on the agenda of the local authority since the 1980s.

The reclamation will be paid for from the sale of the underlying coal, which will be recovered by opencast methods. In all there is approximately 11 million tonnes of high quality Welsh Dry Steam Coal to be recovered. The land will be progressively restored to a landscape that existed prior to the industrial revolution and much of it will be returned to Urban Common for the lasting benefit of the community.

The Scheme provides for the direct employment of approximately 200 employees and will provide continued employment for up to a further 400 in support activities.

Miller Argent is carrying out the main works itself and employs contractors to assist in peripheral activities. Miller Argent has secured the delivery of approximately £30 million worth of new heavy earth moving plant and equipment that is expected to last the 17 year life of the project.

The Miller Group

The Miller Group has been involved in the mining of coal in the UK since 1942, when it was invited by the then Ministry of Works to use its Civil Engineering capability and expertise to recover coal by opencast methods as a wartime expedient.

After the end of the Second World War, the Miller Group continued in the UK Opencast Coal Industry as a contractor until it sold its contract mining capability in January 2001. During its 65 year history, Miller has recovered over 60 million tonnes of coal, together with the excavation of over a billion cubic metres of overburden and the restoration of thousands of acres of land.

The Miller Group owned and operated the largest fleet of earth moving equipment in Europe. It was one of the leading and largest Opencast Mining Contractors in the UK. The Group also spent 10 years as an opencast coal producer in the USA and 3 years as an underground anthracite producer in South Wales. It maintained offices in Indonesia and Australia, where it pursued other coal mining interests. The Miller Group is the holder of the UK's record for coal production, which stands at 107,988 tonnes mined in a single week, from one site. It is most unlikely that this record will now ever be beaten.

Miller Mining was also the first opencast mining contractor in the world to receive BSI QA registration to ISO 9002 covering the management and operation of opencast mining sites.

It was awarded the RoSPA Gold Award for occupational safety for the three consecutive years 1995, 1996 and 1997 and also the prestigious Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Environmental Award for its contribution to the environment, recognising its high standard of the restoration of opencast coal sites.

Contact

James T. Poyner is the mining director responsible for all of Miller's mining interests.