The miners suspended the strike this morning after receiving a promise that the mine and the nearby power plant TEŠ, as well as their owner, the state-onwed HSE power utility, would renegotiate in a week a contract determining the price of coal sold to TEŠ by Slovenia's biggest mine that employs more than 1,000 miners.

Premogovnik Velenje boss Ivan Pohorec, TEŠ CEO Peter Dermol and HSE head Blaž Košorok signed this morning a statement that they would sign by 17 July an annex to the agreement from 2004, said trade unionist Asmir Bečarević.

It is unclear how high the price of coal will be under the annex. The miners said they would revive the strike the next day if the managers fail to come up with a number that covers the entire cost of coal production by next Thursday, according to Bečarević.

The annex is to provide liquidity for the mine until the end of the year, while the company will have to undergo restructuring, Premogovnik Velenje boss Pohorec told the press.

A higher price for the coal, which could be an issue as regards the viability of the almost completed EUR 1.4bn new generator at TEŠ, was one of the key demands expressed by the miners, as this would help the mine's liquidity problems.

The miners underlined that the current price of EUR 2.25 per gigajoule was too low, a position voiced also by Pohorec. Some estimates show that EUR 3.25 per gigajoule would be sustainable.

The price of coal sold to TEŠ was set a decade ago in a plan for the construction of the new generator at TEŠ and has not changed since.

As part of the agreement reached today, miners will also get a EUR 800 holiday allowance, which will be paid out in two instalments in July and August.

Pohorec moreover told the press that the mine had suffered a production loss of 14,000 tonnes of coal each day of the strike. The industrial action started ten days ago, however the mine would not have operated on five of these days (two weekends and the Day of Slovenian Miners on 3 July).

Although the strike started spontaneously, the management is treating it like a regular strike and miners will receive pay for the days of industrial action.