“The 30-year-old Drayton mine is due to run out of mineable coal reserves this year and following the New South Wales Planning and Assessment Committee’s decision not to approve Drayton South last year, current staff levels could not be maintained and approximately 45 redundancies would be necessary,” Anglo said.

Anglo American executive head of open cut mining Mark Heaton said the redundancies were unavoidable but the aim was to keep as many jobs for as long as possible.

“We had hoped the Drayton South project would have given smooth continuity of employment for our 500 workers and 140 local suppliers,” Heaton said.

“However, we now find ourselves in the difficult position of balancing depleting coal levels with extending the mine’s life for as long as possible without approval for Drayton South.

“The redundancy positions will be subject to the business needs and will be determined with full consultation with employees and our employee representatives.”

Anglo took another five years off the expected mine life of the Drayton South project – reducing it to 15 years with 75 million tonnes of resources targeted at a rate of 6Mt per annum run of mine – as part of its underway third application seeking state government and ultimately PAC approval.

The PAC said there was a lacking environmental buffer to nearby horse studs when it rejected the second version of the project in October.

“The project will not be visible from any of the horse stud operational areas,” Anglo-contracted consultancy Hansen Bailey said in the third application.