The open cut mine is located on the northern extremity of the development area and is bounded by the Main Northern Railway, Glennies Creek Road and the New England Highway. It will comprise of two pits. The Arties Pit will be parallel to the New England Highway and will be used to develop the entry portal for the underground coal mine. The Barrett Pit will be located to the east of the Arties Pit and will the source of most of the coal extracted by open cut methods. Initial emplacement of overburden will be to the east of the Barrett Pit behind an environmental bund that will reduce the visual and noise impact of the mining equipment.

Current plans envisage the removal of 60 Million bank cubic metres (Mbcm) of overburden to enable the extraction of 14 Million tonnes (Mt) of Run-of-Mine (ROM) coal over a period of approximately six years. The overburden emplacement areas will be progressively rehabilitated in accordance with the approved Mining Operations Plan, whilst the final void will be utilised for the disposal of reject and tailings material from the underground mine.

Open cut mining will be performed by a mining contractor (Henry Walker Eltin) who will utilise backhoe-style excavators and earthmoving trucks. Open cut mining operations are limited to the hours of 7am to 10pm Monday top Saturday and 8am to 10pm on Sunday and public holidays.

Coal will be extracted from the lower section of the Foybrook formation and include the Pikes Gully, Arties, Liddell and Barrett seams in the vicinity of the Camberwell anticline, which is an upthrust that brings the coal seams closer to the surface.