A legislative committee in Maine voted to recommend rejecting rules designed to revive metal and mineral mining in Maine, the Portland Press Herald reported.

The proposed rules were designed to bring back the mining that has been dormant since 1991, largely driven by New Brunswick-based J.D. Irving Ltd.’s interest in mining at Bald Mountain in Aroostook County (ME, Dec. 2012).

The rules were given preliminary approval by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection in January but were fiercely opposed by environmental groups.

On March 6, The panel voted 7-5 against the proposed rule. The committee also recommended having the Department of Environmental Protection redraft the rules and present them on Feb. 1, 2016, the Portland Press Herald reported.

The recommendation moves to the House and Senate, where it could be changed before being sent to Gov. Paul LePage. The party line committee vote – and the recommended two-year delay – increases the odds of a veto by LePage, who in 2012 signed a bill that ordered the DEP to draft new mining rules.

The Bald Mountain proposal, and the accompanying rule-making process, have been controversial from the beginning. Opponents have suspected that J.D. Irving Ltd., an influential lobbying force and the state’s largest landowner, was heavily involved in drafting the proposed regulations.

Democrats on the Natural Resources panel said the two-year delay would allow the Department of Environmental Protection time to adopt better rules. Depending on who is elected governor in November, that process could be overseen by a new administration.

Environmental groups have urged lawmakers to kill the new regulations and start over. The opposition has focused on several provisions, including one requiring mine operators to ensure that discharges from closed mining sites meet water quality standards “as soon as practicable.”

Business groups such as the Maine State Chamber of Commerce backed the new rules, arguing that mining could be a boon for the state and Aroostook County.

The battle over revitalizing metal and mineral mining has pitted some of the state’s major business interests against environmental groups.

The metals beneath Bald Mountain could be worth as much as $7 billion, according to John S. Cummings, a geologist from Texas who discovered deposits there in the 1970s.