Australia’s independent Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) permission for Anglo American's proposed Drayton South open-cut coal mine in the NSW Hunter Valley, saying it was not in the public interest. It was a reversal of an early decision that approved the project.

Coal miners have launched angry attacks on planning authorities and the New South Wales government after the proposed mine was refused because it posed a threat to key racehorse and tourism industries, The Australian reported.

As horse breeders and grape growers celebrated, Anglo American coal business chief executive Seamus French made a scathing attack on the planning process.

“This has gutted our 500-strong workforce and their families,” French said.

French said the rejection of the 100-Mt (110 million st) mine was devastating for Anglo American employees, suppliers and the local community.

“Unemployment in the Hunter Valley is eight percent,” he said.

“To reject a project which would continue to provide 500 full-time jobs for a period of 20 years is incomprehensible.”

French said the PAC process "is damaging communities and threatening NSW's investment potential."

The PAC also refused a proposal by mining company Coalpac to extend the lives of two mines northwest of the Blue Mountains town of Lithgow.

The PAC said the proposals to expand the Invincible Colliery and Cullen Valley Mine would result in clearing of 150 ha of the Ben Bullen state forest and put high-value stone "pagoda" formations at risk in the nearby Gardens of Stone national park for limited short-term benefits.

The NSW Minerals Council called the Coalpac and Anglo American decisions "a brutal double blow" for regional NSW workers.

Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galillee said more than 4,000 jobs had been lost in the NSW mining industry in the past two years.

The Drayton South decision ends uncertainty in which the region's two biggest thoroughbred studs, Coolmore and Darley, threatened to leave if the mine proceeded, leaving the entire industry unviable.

The PAC said there was not a big enough buffer between the mine and horse studs, that the mine had not shown it would not affect the health of horses and that proposed monitoring of impacts was "not acceptable" because damage would be irreversible.

"The economic benefits of the project do not outweigh the risk of losing Coolmore and Darley and the potential demise of the equine industry in the area, with flow-on impacts on the viticultural tourism industries," the PAC said.

Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association president Cameron Collins said the refusal reinforced the significance of the Hunter as a hub for the breeding industry.