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CALGARY – Despite fierce opposition from American environmental groups, the first commercial oilsands mine in the United States is just months away from starting up after receiving final regulatory approvals from officials in Utah late last week.

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“We’ll be in production later in the fall with commercial production before the end of the year,” U.S. Oil Sands Inc. chief executive Cameron Todd said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Calgary-based U.S. Oil Sands is working through the summer to complete a 2,000-barrel-per-day oilsands mine in eastern Utah, which would make it the first commercial oilsands mine in the United States when it begins producing later this year.

Todd noted that oilsands deposits have been used in the U.S. in the past, including in the construction of the first roads in Utah, but have never been mined on a commercial scale. The Uinta basin in the northeastern and central southeastern of the state has more than 50 identified oil sands deposits, with an estimated total of 20 to 32 billion barrels of oil in place.