The chief operating officer of Ashton’s parent company, Yancoal, Peter Barton, welcomed the move for the south east open-cut application.

But Aboriginal representative Al Oshlack said, if approved, the expansion would lead to immediate court action aimed to stop it.

“The Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People already have several court actions running against Ashton over the destruction of significant sites and if work goes ahead on this expansion we’ll go for a Federal Court injunction,” Mr Oshlack said.

Mr Barton told The Singleton Argus two weeks ago that the government’s failure to approve the expansion was behind his company’s decision to make 18 workers redundant and put at risk the pit’s remaining 90 open-cut jobs.

Ashton lodged the application with the NSW Government two years ago and unless it was approved the remaining 90 workers faced redundancy in the middle of next month, Mr Barton said.

Under the south east proposal, open-cut activities would be moved south of the New England Highway, at Camberwell, with existing equipment and infrastructure being relocated.

Mr Barton said strict controls on mining, minimizing dust, noise and impacts on water, flora and fauna were included in draft approval conditions provided by the state planning department to the assessment commission.

Ashton representatives had made significant changes to their original south east application to meet concerns raised by government officials and community submissions, he said.

The changes included setting the mine back from the Camberwell village, eliminating nighttime mining for the first two years as the mine was worked away from the village, and building a clay mound between the mine and Glennies Creek to reduce impacts with the waterway.

While the company owned all but six of the 55 homes in the village, its officials were committed to work with Singleton Council and residents to ensure a sustainable future after mining operations were completed, Mr Barton said.