Solid Energy's shareholders meet today to decide whether to accept a plan for a gradual sell-down.

Pip Dunphy effectively blew the whistle on Solid Energy's pending insolvency when she resigned her chairmanship less than a year into the role.

Solid Energy's banking backers can expect to get back between 35 cents and 40 cents in the dollar as the miner is wound up over the next few years.

Solid Energy creditors yesterday voted to retain the company's existing administrators and not to set up a creditors' committee.

Two major factors - falling international coal prices and a $320 million mountain of debt - proved the undoing of state-owned coal company Solid Energy.

Barry Soper: The only energy being created by the company in recent years has been the taxpayers' dosh going down the plughole.

Solid Energy acting chairman Andy Coupe admitted it was "unlikely" that any sale, or sales, would cover its outstanding debt.

I say good riddance to this filthy and dangerous industry, writes Sam Judd. Although I do feel for the workers who will lose out on this situation.

Genesis Energy announced its last two coal-burning electricity generators at Huntly Power Station will be shut down.

A decade-long project to save endangered giant snails from a West Coast coal mine will finish next year.

Solid Energy did all it could to avoid job cuts on the West Coast but the coal market made it too difficult, Bill English says.

The mood was grim as Solid Energy employees filed out of the NBS Theatre in Westport today, just minutes after finding out the company was cutting 151 jobs, plus up to 15 contracting jobs - from its Stockton mine. The company is cutting 151 jobs, but some of the losses will be made up of unfilled vacancies, meaning 113 current staff will lose their jobs. This cuts the number of staff at the mine from 397 to 246. It follows Solid's decision to cut 185 jobs a year ago.

The West Coast mining industry has been dealt a heavy blow today, with 113 jobs to go at Solid Energy's Stockton mine.

Job losses on the West Coast have been foreshadowed ahead of meeting between Solid Energy managers and workers at the Stockton Mine tomorrow.

Solid Energy shelled out $4 million for redundancies between July and December last year, mostly for workers from the Stockton opencast mine.

A judicial review will be held in the High Court at Wellington next month into the Crown's decision to drop charges against former Pike River Mine boss Peter Whittall.

Solid Energy says it is solvent, but only just, and will need a new deal from its bankers to survive.

Government Minister Nick Smith has started discussions on what to do with the Pike River mine site.

Four years, a thousand tears and $5.2 million later, the Pike River Mine re-entry plan has been finally abandoned.

Prime Minister John Key says Solid Energy "did everything they possibly could" to recover the bodies of 29 miners at Pike River.

Solid Energy is withdrawing its nitrogen machine - a key tool in the Pike River re-entry hopes - from the mine site and sending it out of the country.

Solid Energy posted its third annual loss in a row as the distressed state-owned coal miner wrote down the value of its export operations.

Solid Energy has delayed making a decision on whether to go ahead with the re-entry of the Pike River Mine drift after consulting with families.

The Pike River Mine tragedy will go down as a lesson in "what can go wrong when everything's wrong", according to one of the Pike royal commissioners.

The election's over and we are now back complaining and telling everyone else their job. We're good at that.

For nearly a year, it turns out, the Pike River mine could have been made safe to enter.

It started well enough, but John Key left Greymouth with a heartfelt plea from the widow of one of the 29 dead Pike River miners ringing in his ears.

An overwhelming number of experienced Stockton mineworkers have volunteered for redundancy because they're fed up, says a worker.