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 Nick Paspaley and John Robinson, the owners of Trepang Services.

Anglo agreed to the sale if the January 31 deadline was met.

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.

Critics including Hunter MPs Michael Johnsen and Clayton Barr said Mr Tinkler needed to address the trail of creditors he left in his wake from previous failed businesses.

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.