One of Britain’s last standing coal miners, UK Coal Holdings, is shutting down its remaining underground operation next month, marking the end of a 300-year industry that once employed over a million workers.

“We are the last of the dinosaurs,” said Chris Jamieson, one of the miners that will lose his job in a few weeks’ time, to The New York Times.

The closure of Kellingley Colliery in northern England marks the end of underground mining, an industry that helped make Britain an industrial power and top exporter.

Though open cast mining will continue in Britain, Kellingley’s closing is the final chapter in the story of underground mining, an enterprise that spanned more than two centuries and helped make Britain an industrial power and a thriving exporter.

Over 20% of the nation’s energy needs are still met by coal, which is mostly imported. Since 2000, U.K. power generators Electricite de France SA to RWE AG have bought more of the fuel from abroad, where coal from Australia to Colombia is cheaper, according to the Confederation of U.K. Coal Producers.

Britain’s coal industry is not alone. The global sector is suffering from rock bottom prices, oversupply, and weak demand.

Metallurgical coal prices have dropped below $90 per metric ton, their lowest levels in a decade, pushing producers to slash output. Thermal coal, mostly used for power generation in emerging markets, is trading at $42 per short ton, as countries try to switch power generation to lower-emission options like natural gas or renewables.

This event still reverberate around the region, where mining engendered a camaraderie and sense of identity with which few other occupations can compete.