Lord Haslam, a one-time pit worker who rose to become chairman of British Coal, has died of cancer, aged 79.

A mining engineer by training, Robert Haslam held senior positions in leading companies including ICI and Tate&Lyle before succeeding Sir Iain MacGregor as chairman of British Steel in 1983. Three years later he followed MacGregor into the top job at British Coal.

Unlike the abrasive American, Haslam's main strengths were labour relations and marketing. Although his style might have been markedly different, Haslam was no less determined than his predecessor. During the 1984 miners' strike, Haslam was forthright in his condemnation of the National Union of Miners and paid tribute to the efforts of Ravenscraig steelworkers in keeping the plant operational despite the difficulties of being at the end of a road-bound supply chain.

Born in Bolton, Lancashire, the son of a painter and decorator, Haslam had won a scholarship to study geography at Cambridge, but failed the required Latin exam. He opted instead for Birmingham, only to find that the geography course was cancelled because of the war and chose to study geology, which eventually led to a first-class honours in mine engineering. From university he joined Manchester Collieries as a pit boy in 1944. He spent three years under ground before gaining his manager's certificate and this experience was to prove invaluable in later years.

Frustrated at not being promoted in the newly nationalised industry led by the National Coal Board, he joined ICI, where he rose to become a personnel director, then a board member, and deputy chairman, narrowly missing the chairmanship.

In 1956, with a crisis brewing over Egypt's announcement that it would not extend the Suez Canal Company's concession after expiration in 1959, he happened to be passing through Cairo airport and was arrested and thrown into jail, suspected of plotting to blow up the Aswan Dam. Officials did not initially believe

his explanation that ICI was involved in site clearance at the dam.

During his time at the chemical giant ICI, he became an explosives expert and acted as a consultant on the 1957 Oscar-winning film, The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Ill health meant he took the chairmanship of the British Steel Corporation part-time at first in 1983, guiding the

group through the worst effects of the miners' strike and returning it to profitability after years of losses.

At British Coal he continued with the controversial programme of pit closures but attempted at the same time to build bridges with miners defeated by the government of Margaret Thatcher.

Haslam was knighted in 1985 and created a life peer in 1990.

He is survived by his wife, two stepsons, and two sons by his first marriage.

Lord Haslam; born February 4, 1923, died November 2, 2002.