Montana regulators this week proposed approval of a major expansion of the state’s largest coal mine after it was sold through bankruptcy auction to a company controlled by the Navajo Nation, Kallanish Energy reports.
The 72-million-ton expansion of the Spring Creek Mine near Decker, Montana, will occur within the mine’s existing permit boundary, Jen Lane, with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, told The Associated Press.
It will disturb roughly 1.5 square miles of additional land and extend the life of the mine by four years, to approximately 2031.
Spring Creek in 2017 was the 10th largest coal mine in the U.S., producing almost 13 million tons of coal.
A bankruptcy judge last week approved the sale of Spring Creek and two Wyoming mines owned by bankrupt Cloud Peak Energy to the Navajo Transitional Energy Co., a New Mexico-based company wholly owned by the Navajo Nation.
Representatives of the two companies said the sale would help keep the mines open.
The sale of the three mines is expected to close in October and would make the Navajo the third largest coal producer in the U.S.
A final decision on the Spring Creek expansion is expected by late 2019, Lane told the AP.
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