Low’s wealth is estimated to have swelled to $28 billion from $1 billion in the years since coal was assumed to be headed for the slag heap. Some experts had concluded that coal consumption ...

and have taken to illegal peddling of scavenged coal as a way to make a precarious living. Here, five women carry coal on their heads for peddling, from the slag heap of a nearby mine.

I grew up in South Wales and was surrounded by the coal mining industry. Journeys always had a back drop of pit heads and slag heaps. The work of the miners was arduous, dirty and some times fatal.