My father runs a company that provides native wild land seed to private and government organizations for the purpose of land reclamation and restoring natural habitat. He has been involved with several strip mining companies in the past so I just contacted the company through the website about conducting a site survey. I think the land reclamation portion will play a major role in appeasing uneasy locals and may be a requirement as per the permit.
Funny thing is there's a pit where they want to put a pit and a few locals are up in arms about it! I have heard from others who are business owners in that area that a vast majority of the people support the project, just a few squeaky wheels is all.