Richard Budge, businessman dubbed King Coal, dies at 69

RICHARD BUDGE, the businessman who was crowned 'King Coal' after successfully spearheading the purchase of State-owned British Coal's mining assets when the industry was privatised over 20 years ago, has died at 69.
Richard BudgeRichard Budge
Richard Budge

Mr Budge was born in 1947, the year the UK coal industry, with almost 1,000 deep mines and a million employees, was nationalised and became the National Coal Board.

Black day as ‘King Coal’ mining mogul Richard Budge declared bankruptAlmost half a century later when the “ultimate privatisation” was completed, there were just 19 deep mines in production – and Mr Budge’s Doncaster-based RJB Mining company bought all but two of them.

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He was born in Lincolnshire and studied at Boston Grammar School and Manchester University. He left to join the Retford-based company AF Budge owned by his late brother Tony, which was involved in civil engineering projects.

In 1992, he bought the Opencast Coal and Plant Division from the family business. He bought a small deep mine in Northumberland, contracted for surface mine sites, and as the government prepared for the sale of what former Energy Secretary Cecil Parkinson had described as the “ultimate privatisation”, rescued three deep mines which British Coal had decided would play no part in the privatisation process.

These “lease and licence” mines went on to produce almost 20 million tonnes of coal for power stations and industry before they closed.

He invested his energies and much of his personal wealth in securing a future for Hatfield, a colliery near Doncaster with substantial reserves and the potential to pioneer carbon capture technology seen as an environmental life-line for coal.

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Mr Budge served in both regional and national capacities as chairman and president of the Coal Trade Benevolent Association and was chairman of the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation and many organisations and activities popular in traditional mining communities.

He was a trustee of the National Coal Mining Museum for England near Wakefield. He also worked with Nottinghamshire Enterprises, a job creation agency helping areas hit hard by pit closures.

He leaves his wife Ros, their sons Grant and Kurt and their five grandchildren.