According to the Associated Press, the federal agency had sought information about the impact the operation would have on nearby streams and the surrounding environment. However, this week the agency said it felt facility discharges would not have a significant impact.

It initially suspended the Clean Water Act Section 404 permit in December 2007, with ICG providing the needed information and amendments to the permit last December.

In an interview with ILN, ICG spokesperson Ira Gamm said the producer and its ICG Hazard subsidiary were pleased with the ACE’s decision to restore the permit.

ICG has worked with the Corps over the past 15 months to address questions that led to the suspension, he said.

“The company employed experts in various fields to conduct a watershed-scale cumulative impact assessment to determine the real effect of mining on the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River. ICG also developed and has implemented a fill minimisation procedure for Thunder Ridge that resulted in the elimination of a valley fill and optimisation of the other fills.”

Thunder Ridge, a 460-worker existing surface operation that commenced production in the early 1990s, produced about 700,000 tons in 2008.

Gamm noted that the producer had also worked to reclaim more than 2500 previously mined acres at the Thunder Ridge site, including the planting of more than 96,000 hardwood and native species trees with cooperation from the Office of Surface Mining’s Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative program.