A local environmental group has appealed state regulators' approval of a mining permit for Ramaco Carbon's Brooke mine in Wyoming.
The Powder River Basin Resource Council filed the appeal with Wyoming's Environmental Quality Council (EQC) last week citing problems with the permit's subsidence control plan.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved the permit early last month. Ramaco wants to develop the mine, which holds an estimated 1.1bn short tons (988mn metric tonnes) of reserves, to fuel projects at the research park the company is building to explore alternative uses for coal.
"The permit application is patently deficient," the resource council said. For example, the application does not evaluate the subsidence risk associated with highwall mining or how Ramaco could prevent it from happening, the environmental group said.
The company plans to start production with surface mining and then transition to highwall mining. The permit requires Ramaco to submit geotechnical analysis of the highwall mining area before making the transition.
But any revisions that are made to the permit would not be open to comment by the public, the Powder River Basin Resource Council said in its appeal. The environmental group believes that Ramaco instead should have to resubmit its permit application.
Ramaco was critical of the appeal.
"This creates another round of time consuming and costly review which costs Wyoming taxpayers and delays creation of Wyoming jobs," chief executive Randall Atkins said.
This is not the first hurdle Ramaco has faced in developing the Brooke mine. Coal producer Lighthouse Resources contested the company's permit application in 2015 because of a dispute over surface rights.
Then in 2016, the EQC ordered Ramaco to conduct some additional analysis. And the following year, the Powder River Basin Resource Council objected to the analysis and Ramaco's application was rescinded. Ramaco filed another application in 2018.
