Kevin Irving started his career in 1979 as mining engineering trainee for the National Coal Board in the UK. He went through the ranks of deputy, and technical assistant.

His first statutory position was as an undermanager at Thurcroft Colliery near Rotherham in South Yorkshire. “Our longwall achieved the prestigious position of joining the ‘cutting a mile in a shift club’, an accolade not many mines achieved back in the 1980s,” he said.

His move to Silverwood Colliery was where he truly learnt the art of managing longwall faces and made plenty of mistakes in the process. However, the team achieved the European record for an advancing longwall.

After working at a few other mines in the old Doncaster region he joined Richard Budge and RJB Mining in 1994 to become manager of the reopened Rossington Colliery, closed by British Coal the previous year.

“This was an exciting period for the company as were given the empowerment to manage the mine as we saw fit, choosing the men, a new management team and the equipment to operate. We bought the first two-legged longwall support ever to be used in the UK and it transformed roof control at the mine.”

Kevin then became manager at Harworth Colliery, a difficult mine to manage and one of the deepest in the UK. It had problems such as methane, spontaneous combustion and difficult roof and floor control.

In 1998 he was appointed director of mining responsible for the operations of all UK Coal’s underground mines. Then ran a strategic transformation programme, Project 105, where improved management systems were implemented at the mines to enhance productivity and profitability. As group operations director he introduced to the UK polyutherane resins, driftrunners and radio imaging techniques for detecting geological anomalies.

Kevin spent 2004 as an independent mining consultant in Eastern Europe and the Middle East before joining Snowden as group manager coal.

According to Kevin, he enjoys playing golf badly but is always trying to improve.

ILN:What is your earliest mining memory?

KI: Studying minerals in geography lessons at school when I was 16 and being told by the teacher, in this world of ours you either mine it or grow it - a fact that is still imprinted on my mind.

ILN: What made you choose mining as a career?

KI: I wanted to travel the world and found engineering a fascinating subject, and mining fitted the build. My father was a mechanical engineer who was in the construction of nuclear power stations. He once took me as a teenager into the inside of a nuclear reactor (before the uranium was put anywhere near it may I add), and there is not people who can say they’ve been into the core of a reactor.

ILN: When was your first underground visit?

KI: In 1975 when I worked in South African gold mines at Welkom Orange Free State.

ILN: What was your favourite job in a coal mine?

KI: Working with people from being a coal face trainee to a general mine manager. Mining is not only about technology, it’s about people. People bring the greatest rewards either on a personal level or at a business level. Tap into the resource and it will gain all the efficiencies you want.

ILN: What was your least favourite job?

KI: Cleaning out the downcast shaft sump in the UK mid-winter where it’s cold, wet and full of slurry.

ILN: Who, or what, has most influenced your mining career?

KI: My mentors in my early career - some were older overmen, others undermanagers and production managers.

ILN: What do you consider your best mining achievement?

KI: Building a first class team of men at Rossington Colliery under RJB Mining and reopening a closed British Coal mine and turning it into a very profitable entity. This couldn’t have been achieved without the commitment and involvement of each of the team members.

ILN: What do you see as being the greatest mining development during your career?

KI: The two legged shield. How many times, when we had the 6 legged or four legged supports, did we operate with only two (back legs switched off). Too often to remember.

ILN: Do you hold any mining records?

KI: As an undermanager at Silverwood Colliery my team held the European production record for an advancing longwall.

ILN: Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?

KI: Play better golf and see more of this wonderful world we live in.

ILN: What was your most embarrassing moment in a coal mine?

KI: On my first day underground I opened my snap (crib) box to find the crusts cut off my sandwiches and a white napkin. My wife never prepared my snap again.

ILN: What was your scariest time in a coal mine?

KI: In the early days of filling cavities with timber being on top of the powered supports putting the cribs up.

ILN: What is your worst memory of coal mining?

KI: Dealing with a fatality. Every miner’s worst moment.

ILN: Do you think that the day of the fully automated remotely operated face is near?

KII recently visit the Czech Republic where the longwall plough face was fully mechanised and operated from a surface control room. The workforce on the face looked after the maintenance and the control of the face ends and to look for anomalies both geologically and engineering wise.

ILN: What major improvements would you like to see on longwall operations?

KI: Good automatic data collection from development machines ie. the continuous miners and bolters. To aid in the analysis of performance and maintenance to assist in optimising performance levels. The success of longwall mining is development inventory. Longwalls have all the bells and whistles now but does your development machine?