The proposal seeks to make changes to the approved height of the main emplacement area for waste rock, to improve the visual impacts from areas within and around the township of Muswellbrook and along Denman Road.

The proposal also seeks to establish a new gravel access road to an existing site office off Wybong Road.

On 30 September Rio Tinto announced it had signed an agreement for the sale of its 40% interest in the Bengalla Joint Venture to New Hope Corporation for $US606 million.

Bengalla is an open cut mine, using a dragline truck and excavator method. About 362 employees work in shifts to keep the mine operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Operations are centred in the Wittingham Coal Measures of the Hunter Coalfield, which is part of a Permian coal basin known as the Sydney basin.

In 2015 the mine produced more than 8.3 million tonnes of high quality thermal coal for export used for electricity generation.

After being washed and prepared for sale, the coal is loaded onto trains for transportation 115km to the Port Waratah Coal Terminal in Newcastle where it is shipped to international customers.

Bengalla had JORC run-of-mine coal reserves totalling 269 million tonnes (163Mt, proved and 106Mt, probable) as at 31 December 2014.

A spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Environment said the local community always has an opportunity to share their views.

“Community consultation is an integral part of the planning process and the applicant will have to respond to the feedback we receive,” the spokesperson said.

“This feedback is taken into consideration when we develop our recommendations.”