Plans for a fiercely contested coal mine in northeastern Australia received a long-awaited government green light on Thursday, less than a month after conservative politicians who champion coal triumphed in national elections.

An environmental permit issued by the Queensland State government cleared the way for an Indian company, the Adani Group, to start work on the mine. The project had been tied up in court challenges and protests by environmentalists since it was first proposed eight years ago.

“Construction can now begin,” the company said Thursday on Twitter.

Adani, which is India’s largest importer of coal, had initially sought to extract 60 million tons of coal from the mine each year, but has since scaled back that target to around 10 million tons, at least in the initial phase of the project. All of the coal — to come from the vast, remote Galilee Basin in Queensland — would be transported to a port 200 miles away, or 320 kilometers, for export to India.

Environmentalists assailed the decision to issue the final permit, which was linked to groundwater management. The Australian Marine Conservation Society called it “bad news for coral and wildlife” in and around the Great Barrier Reef.

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