Cloud Peak's application, which could see the company gain an additional 198 million tons of coal on adjacent land, was considered by the Powder River Basin Regional Coal Team on Wednesday.

Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Beverly Gorney told Associated Press the panel voted unanimously for the agency to begin processing the application.

The five-member panel includes the governors of Montana and Wyoming or their representatives, the states' Bureau of Land Management directors and the BLM director for mineral and lands in Montana.

The vote is the first step in a lengthy process and comes amid concerns raised by federal investigators that the government may have lost as much as $60 million in recent years by undervaluing coal from public lands.

The BLM has vowed to improve the program, but environmental groups wanted the application delayed regardless, arguing that there was insufficient information about the lease for the panel to make an appropriate decision.

The Spring Creek mine is in Montana’s Powder River Basin, the main area concern for the Department of Interior’s inspector-general’s investigation into coal leasing.

Spring Creek shipped approximately 17.2 million tons of coal last year. It is sold domestically and exported to Asian utility customers via the Westshore terminal in British Columbia, Canada.