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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- State regulators have given approval for a surface coal mine on private lands in southern Utah.
Alton Coal Development LLC plans to produce 1 million tons a year from a 400-acre parcel a few miles south of the town of Alton in Kane County.
The Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining says Alton Coal will get an operating permit as soon as it posts a $6 million reclamation bond.
The division says the Coal Hollow Mine will exhaust the private reserves in three to five years, when the company hopes to mine adjacent federal lands.
Republican state Rep. Mike Noel says Panguitch residents are upset that the company plans to run a lot of coal trucks through town.
A company manager told The Associated Press it wasn't taking any questions.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
