What goes on during the life of a coal mining operation?
At a minimum most of the permitted coal mines have a life of about twenty years for the smaller mines and thirty to fifty years for the larger ones. During this time MMD relies on a series of performance standards and the permit to inspect and enforce all operations and violations can be written on infractions of the rules or permit. Inspections are conducted on a monthly basis that review how well the mine is following its operation and reclamation plans. With one exception, all of the permits are renewed every five years. A renewal is similar to a new application, except that a mine has a right of successive renewal unless an opponent can show the Director that the original permit was improvidently issued. The purpose of renewals is to update permits and fine tune issues associated with operation or reclamation planning. More often permits will undergo minor changes that do not go through a public notice process. MMD competes about fifty to seventy-five modifications for its mines ev
