Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has chaired the first meeting of the new Scottish Open Cast Mining Taskforce, which he announced last week as part of the Scottish Government’s response to Scottish Coal going into liquidation with the loss of 590 jobs.
The Scottish Government says it is working to save as many of the jobs as possible.
The group includes representatives of affected councils, the Coal Authority, the relevant unions, the Scottish Government and its agencies, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the UK Government.
Parliamentarians representing the coalfield communities affected, from across the political parties, are also involved.
Mr Ewing said: “I very much welcome the intense work being carried out by all parties to date to try to save jobs, including the work by the local authorities involved.
“Our main goal in our discussions with all relevant parties today was to focus on the retention of as many Scottish Coal jobs as possible.”
The taskforce comes in addition to the establishment of the Scottish Mines Restoration Trust, which is being set up to help facilitate the restoration of old open-cast coal mines across Scotland.
As well as ensuring the responsible restoration of open-cast sites, it is expected to create hundreds of jobs across the country.
The collapse of Scottish Coal includes the demise of St Ninian’s and Blair House in Fife. The taskforce will reconvene on May 15.