London (CNN) Fracking has restarted in the United Kingdom for the first time since 2011, as the UK-based energy firm Cuadrilla kicked off a three-month exploration process on Preston New Road in the northern English county of Lancashire.

The launch of the project follows a failed legal challenge by an environmental campaigner Friday.

The controversial mining process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, extracts gas from shale rock by injecting fluid at high pressure into shale formations deep beneath the Earth's surface.

We have started hydraulic fracturing operations at our Preston New Road site. #shalegas To learn more about the process visit https://t.co/y0ThsIHYqB pic.twitter.com/sP9samdtP2 — Cuadrilla (@CuadrillaUK) October 15, 2018

The UK's then-Department of Energy and Climate Change suspended shale gas operations in 2011 after fears that the process was linked to earth tremors. Since then, there has been no fracking in the UK.

The process of extracting gas through fracking has come under fire from environmental groups that argue the process has consequences for the environment and contaminates groundwater.

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