10 years after Tower Colliery shut, what next for the site?
January 25 marks ten years since the closure of Tower Colliery in Hirwaun.
The pit was reopened by its miners in 1995 and ran successfully for thirteen years, finally closing after workable coal reserves were exhausted in 2008.
Now there are plans to transform the area for housing and a business park.
Watch my report from Wales at Six below:
Chairman Tyrone O'Sullivan, who led the buyout of the pit in 1994/95, says the site's legacy is as strong as ever.
Coal extraction at the Tower opencast site came to an end in 2017, after changes in environmental regulations meant principal client Aberthaw Power Station would no longer take its coal.
Tyrone O'Sullivan hopes the long heralded redevelopment of the site can now go ahead.
While the pithead buildings near the Tower shaft will be preserved, the bulk of the redevelopment would see the opencast site landscaped and reused.
Mining historian Dr Ben Curtis says the success of the Tower buyout vindicated many of the arguments made by miners.