Hopes by UK quarry operator Glebe Mines of expanding operations at its Tearsall open pit on Bonsall Moor in Derbyshire are being opposed by a local campaign group.
Friends of the Peak District is fighting an application to extend the pit, which is set to be decided on Friday January 30.
Glebe wants to extract a further 660,000 tonnes of fluorspar from the 11.95 hectare site over the next six years.
The pressure group argues it will spoil the landscape near Wensley and Winster and should be scaled back in the Peak District because underground supplies of the mineral fluorspar are still available in the area.
Glebe has an underground fluorspar mine at nearby Great Hucklow and has agreed that 15 per cent of all the fluorspar it extracts in the Peak District will come from underground by 2011.
Andy Tickle, head of planning at FPD, said: "This is still not enough. We want Glebe to guarantee 30 per cent of fluorspar comes from underground by 2012. This would be the best way to make sure that their impact on the Peak District's landscape can be minimised."
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