Australian Pacific Coal has advised the Australian Stock Exchange it secured $25 million to acquire 83.33 per cent of the mine, after entering a loan arrangement with Northern Territory identities Nick Paspaley and  John  Robinson  the owners of Trepang Services.

Anglo agreed to the sale of the mine, located  just north of Muswellbrook, if the January 31 deadline was met.

The Paspaley, family best known for their pearling business based  in northern Australia, own and operate approximately 20,000 hectares of prime agricultural land in the region through their company Paspaley Rural. 

They own Thornthwaite Station near Scone and Kurrajong Park near Coolah.

Questions are being asked as to why, given their rural interests, they would be keen in investing in coal mining given the expected strong opposition for the development of an open cut mine on the Dartbrook lease.

Mr Tinkler has been reported as saying he wants to see Dartbrook converted from an underground mine to an open cut operation.

Among the organisations opposed to such a development is the Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association (HTBA).

“The HTBA notes that underground mining ceased at the Dartbrook mine on January 1 2007. According to Anglo American’s reports the Dartbrook mine has since been under care and maintenance due to “ongoing operational and geological issues, ” HTBA Committee Member and Principal of Yarraman Park Mr Arthur Mitchell said.

“The Dartbrook mine site is near one of the most important equine corridors and far too close to the equine critical industry cluster in the Hunter Valley.

 “Any attempt to convert this mine to an open cut mine will be met by vigorous opposition from the community of the Upper Hunter. It is time that action was taken to institute buffers or exclusion zones to protect NSW’s iconic equine industry which is under threat from mining”.

Mr Tinkler has not responded to questions about when his company will apply to the NSW Department of Planning to run an open cut coal mine at the site, after saying in January that his future is in coal.

“I’ve got a very good record in the coal industry. That’s where I’m going to spend my time in the future,” he said during an interview in which he blamed activists and the media for questions about his return to coal as bigger players leave, and his drop from billionaire to being pursued by creditors.

While Mr Tinkler suggested an approval would be relatively straightforward because of recent expansion decisions involving neighbouring mines, his surprise December announcement about the move on Dartbrook met a wall of opposition on financial and environmental grounds.

There are also serious concerns about an open cut coal mine at Dartbrook, and whether work to close the existing underground mine would be undertaken. 

In an interview in January Mr Tinkler dismissed questions about taking on Dartbrook owner Anglo American’s liabilities for the mine, after analyst Tim Buckley warned of the risks posed by large companies selling Hunter mines to smaller operators as a method of offloading rehabilitation liabilities in the multi millions of dollars.

“I don’t think there’s any future liabilities there,” Mr Tinkler said about Dartbrook underground mine closure liabilities which are part of the Anglo sale.

Dartbrook’s lease adjoins the recently sold Mount Pleasant lease.

Mount Pleasant, an approved but still to be built open cut mine, was sold last week by Rio Tinto to MACH Energy.

MACH Energy was a company registered in September 2015 and is linked to Indonesia’s Salim Group.

Among the directors of MACH Energy is Mr Tinkler’s former right hand man Scott Winter.

Rio Tinto had planned to use its Bengalla’s infrastructure to handle Mount Pleasant’s coal production as they would have been adjacent operations.

However, with the sale,  of Bengalla to New Hope, and now Mount Pleasant to MACH Energy how the coal handling will be undertaken from Mt Pleasant remains unknown.