THE billion-pound dream has ended, just 20 years after it began.

Riccall Mine closed today, bringing to an end mining in the Selby complex which started in 1983.

All five pits - Wistow, Stillingfleet, Whitemoor, North Selby and now Riccall - have shut, along with Gascoigne Wood Mine where the once "black gold" was washed and despatched by train.

As the last train of coal pulled out of Gascoigne Wood today, angry miners said the so-called dream had turned into a nightmare, while owners UK Coal insisted there was no prospect of the complex becoming viable. The world's largest deep mine complex disappeared into oblivion today after coalface workers at Riccall cut their last piece of coal from the Stanley Main seam.

But there were no celebrations, only sadness, anger and frustration among miners who believed they had a job for life when they moved to Selby more than 20 years ago.

When the then National Coal Board announced the Selby coal bonanza in 1974, it said it expected to mine about 250 million tonnes of coal from the Barnsley seam alone, in a coalfield that covered 110 square miles across the Vale of York. But severe geological problems, caused by huge faults in the coal seam, resulted in the complex producing 120 million tonnes of coal - less than half the anticipated amount.

It took 20 years and £1.4 billion of taxpayers' money to plan and bring the showpiece complex into full production.

The massive project included the sinking of 10 shafts - the deepest being at North Selby, at almost 1,000 metres - and the digging out of 124 miles of underground roadways. But NCB chiefs and the Government said the country would reap rich rewards from what would be the "jewel in mining's crown".

Wistow Mine was the first to cut coal, in 1983, and when the other four pits came on stream, things were looking good as coal was despatched to Drax, Eggborough and other major power stations across the country.

By the late 1980s, productivity was five times higher than the national average for UK mines.

The jewel has ended up a little tarnished, however, only once achieving the 12-million tonnes annual output it was designed to produce.

By the mid-1990s Mother Nature began to take its toll, with poor geological conditions resulting in roof collapses and flooding on the coalfaces and tunnels being crushed to half their original height.

Now under private ownership, coal bosses said they had no choice but to write off large areas of coal reserves, which had become unviable because of the unpredictable geology.

They decided, instead, to concentrate on mining areas with "more favourable geology and less uncertainty."

By the millennium year, annual output that five years earlier had been 11.4 million tonnes was down to 4.4 million tonnes and the complex was haemorrhaging money.

The coalfield that had once made operating profits of more than £100 million a year was now heavily in the red, notching up losses of £93 million between 1999 and 2002.

It was the beginning of the end.

At its peak, Selby employed more than 3,000 people, along with 1,000 contractors.

When the complex finally closed today, just 160 men were still working at Riccall and 95 at Gascoigne Wood.

Latest figures reveal that 664 miners have secured new jobs outside the industry, about 240 men have transferred to Kellingley Colliery and more than 900 are still undergoing new skills training.

But as Dave Tonks, National Union of Mineworkers' treasurer at Riccall Mine, says: "Given a choice, most of the men who have been made redundant would return to the pits. It's a way of life."

Updated: 10:30 Tuesday, October 26, 2004