Letter: US had to look to Britain for this mining technology

September 9, 2026 - 00:11

From Alan Kaye, former CEO and chairman of Dobson Park Industries, based in Carnforth, Lancashire, UK.

It says something about the current state of industrial policy that the United States, with all its capital and engineering muscle, had to come looking to Britain for a piece of mining technology. This is not a nostalgic complaint but a practical observation. The equipment in question, developed over decades in the tough conditions of British coal seams, represents a level of niche expertise that has largely been allowed to wither in the US.

The British mining industry was not just about digging. It was a relentless testing ground for hydraulics, roof support systems, and underground safety. When the pits closed, that knowledge did not vanish. It was preserved by a handful of specialist firms, often in the North of England, who kept refining the hardware for export markets. American companies, focused on scale and speed, lost the patience for this kind of incremental, high-risk engineering. They outsourced, they cut R and D, and they forgot that some problems cannot be solved with software alone.

So when a US operation recently needed a specific, reliable solution for difficult ground conditions, they found it in Lancashire, not in Texas or Colorado. That is a compliment to our remaining engineers, but it is also a warning. If Britain does not start valuing these industrial pockets more seriously, the next request will go to China or Germany. We should not wait for that phone call to be a wake-up call. We need to invest in the skills and the firms that still hold the blueprints, before the last of them retires.