The gates are closing for the last time on Britain's only mine owned by its workers.
Tower Colliery, which was bought with miners' redundancy money 13 years ago, will cease production after 140 years in Hirwaun.
Miners will be marching away at 11am on Friday in a "celebration" of the colliery that defied those who claimed it was too expensive to run.
From the pit, the 270 workers will head to the Penywaun, the club where the decision to buy the pit was made, and raise a glass as speeches are made.
The colliery's 62-year-old chairman, Tyrone O'Sullivan, who led the buyout of Wales' last deep pit in 1995, said: "When there was the miners' strike, and all the rapid pit closures, there tended to be something resembling a wake afterwards.
"In Tower's case, it's a celebration of the last 13 years. We marched to the pit when we got it back, so we're going to reverse it this time.
"We'll start from the shaft and go back up the road. Then we'll raise the banner and tip it towards the pit as a salute for the life it's given us.
"If I'd asked any of the workers, none of them would have perceived having 13 years at Tower. They would have been grateful for two or three years."
The official closure comes a week after the last coal was mined.
The mine sold £600,000 of coal a year - despite British Coal saying it was uneconomical to run when they closed it.
Read More
MORE ABOUT