As the provincial government finalizes details of new rules for coal mining in Alberta’s mountains and foothills, one company is asking officials to pick a definition of open pit mining that won’t interfere with its mining practices.

In December, Alberta’s United Conservative Party government announced it will permit coal mining and exploration in previously off-limits areas along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, but said the policy framework developed through its Coal Industry Modernization Initiative (CIMI) would ban new open pit mines and mountaintop removal coal mining.