In the release, Mr Hartcher said the renewal conditions of the Gunnedah-area licences prohibited any open-cut or longwall mining on or under the areas of the alluvial flood plain and the black soil of the Liverpool Plains.

When contacted by The Leader yesterday, Shenhua said it had not received copies of the new renewal agreements.

A spokeswoman for Mr Hartcher’s office confirmed neither of the mining companies would receive formal renewal documentation until “early next week”.

Caroona Coal Action Group spokesman Tim Duddy said he was “hopping mad” details of the supposed renewals had been “leaked to the media” and that no consultation process had taken place.

“For a start it’s not a renewal, it’s a letter of offer,” he said.

“And letters of offer haven’t been shown to the parties involved – it’s proof the process is stuffed.”

Mr Duddy said that after reading the papers yesterday morning and finding out about the supposed licence renewals, he had called the head of coal titles in Maitland, who said he knew nothing about them either.

“He said he only found out about them in the newspaper, too. It’s just outrageous. It shows that there is an appalling process in place and the Coalition is not committed to protecting prime agricultural land and vital water resources,” Mr Duddy said.

“It took 15 years for the previous state government to become corrupted by the coal mining process and the current less than six months,” he said, suggesting NSW was “in for a rough time”.

He said he believed that Mr Hartcher announcing the renewal before any consultation was undertaken with any stakeholders assumed that mining and agriculture could co-exist. A spokeswoman for Mr Hartcher said yesterday that neither Shenhua nor BHP were expecting to receive copies of the new exploration licences but could expect to receive them by the middle of next week.