With the clock winding down on the Bush administration, the Interior Department is expected to approve a merger of two mines in Arizona that are operated by Peabody Energy, the largest coal company in the world.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement could approve the proposal as early as next wee, the Associated Press reported., That would allow Peabody to operate a shuttered mine that Navajo Nation activists have complained about under the same permit as another mine still in operation.

Enei Begaye, the co-director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, said the public wasn't given enough time to comment on the merger .She said the cultural and spiritual impacts of mining weren't considered by the government.

"Black Mesa is a female, and the coal is her liver," Begaye, a tribal member, told the AP. "This is not just symbolic. It's a real representation of the spiritual, cultural relationship that the people have with the area. And so to allow a life of mine permit tears that relationship apart."

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Feds mull allowing 1 permit to cover 2 mines (AP 12/4)

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