Vancouver-based Baard Energy has raised $2.5 billion from private investors to build a coal-to-liquid plant in Wellsville, Ohio, according to the Youngstown Business Journal. The funds will allow Baard to begin the first of three construction phases on the $6 billion project, which will convert coal and biomass into petroleum fuels.

The project was delayed for nearly three years as the company resolved environmental permitting issues raised by the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council.

Construction, set to begin next spring, will take about three years and employ 4,000 workers. When it’s complete, the plant will employ about 415 workers.