Obituary: Richard Budge (1947-2016)

摘要

Richard Budge, the businessman who was dubbed 'King Coal' after successfully spearheading the purchase of state-owned British Coal's mining assets in England when the industry was privatized more than 20 years ago, died on 18 July at the age of 69 following a nine-year battle with cancer. Mr Budge was born in 1947, the year the UK coal industry -with almost 1,000 deep mines and 1 million employees - was nationalized and became the National Coal Board. Almost half a century later when the 'ultimate privatization' was completed, there were just 19 deep mines in production - and Richard Budge's Doncaster-based RJB Mining company bought all but two of them. The three English coalfield packages embracing 17 deep mines, 30 surface mines, more than 400 million tonnes of reserves and nearly 50,000 acres of land, cost RJB Mining, of which Mr Budge was chief executive, £815 million.