EHRENFELD, Pa. — A Kittaning-based mining company has been tapped to head up an inaugural coal mine reclamation project in Western Pennsylvania.

The Rosebud Mining Co. will send about 25 employees to work on the project to remove and relocate up to 3 million yards of refuse material from an inactive coal mine that is above the town of Ehrenfeld in Cambria County.

The ceremonial groundbreaking for the project was held today.

Jim Barker of Rosebud Mining said the material has been on fire in the past, and there are concerns that it could slide downhill and into the town. The company will truck the refuse away, and grade and reseed the old mine site above Ehrenfeld.

Barker said Rosebud expects the project to take two to three years to complete.

The project is funded through the federal government’s Abandoned Mine Lands Economic Revitalization pilot program, a $90 million project that is paying for dozens of similar reclamation initiatives in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky.

The money comes from fees paid to the government by the coal industry.