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The proposed mine is intended to service fuel to a nearby 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant under development by Mississippi Power.
Granting of the project’s permit comes after state’s public service commission cited community value in the increased employment availability and environmental opposition from the Sierra Club and others was withdrawn.
The lignite mine will reportedly include 955 acres of a 2299 tenement and will cost about $US245 million to establish.
According to the Associated Press mining will produce 2Mtpa for the first five years and will ramp up to 4.1Mtpa through to 2052.
The mine will be located in Kemper County and is expected to dwarf North American Coal’s other Mississippi operation, the Red Hills surface mine near the Ackerman which produced more than 620,000 tons of coal in 2011.
