Scotland still produces more coal than Wales, but everything comes from opencast while the bulk of English coal still comes from the underground pits in the north of England.
The inquiry followed the planning application made by Miller Argent for the reclamation of land which also includes extracting coal by opencast methods.
He said Scottish Coal had been operating at an opencast mine in the area for 14 years and this latest development would see it continue for another eight years at least.