El País points out that even a highly skilled and qualified miner can only earn around €2,000 for three months' work.

Chhantyals were skilled miners.

From the end of World War II until the early 1960s both Geevor and South Crofty found it hard to raise capital and to recruit skilled miners.

But in the same period, skilled white miners got annual raises of only about 5 percent.

Local workmen were not skilled in this industry, so the company hired about 100 coal workmen from Ohio of which 75 were skilled miners.

Silver and later copper were discovered in South Australia in the 1840s, leading to the export of ore and the immigration of skilled miners and smelters.

Shortly after, new rich veins were discovered and these were quickly exploited, bringing a large number of skilled miners especially from Derbyshire to live in Halkyn.

The local collieries enjoyed a reputation for highly skilled miners, a productive workforce and non-radical politics, and the community had thriving shops, churches, chapels and sports teams.

This decision upheld an earlier ruling that it was unfair labour practice to exclude skilled black miners, purely on the basis of race, from the pension scheme.

By the time he was 20, the boy had become a skilled practical miner.