Muswellbrook Shire Council set to take on Glencore's Mangoola Coal in High Court

And the council is ready to back itself, with talk of engaging top Sydney silk Bret Walker SC, renowned for representing politicians like Kevin Rudd and Barnaby Joyce, as well as bikies and corporate high-flyers.

A council spokesman confirmed on Monday they would seek to appeal the matter in the High Court after Glencore won a Supreme Court appeal handed down late last month.

The council has said that if it wins, it will review mining buffer lands throughout the shire to ensure mining companies are paying the right rates and as such it would be a "considerable win for the community".

It may also set a precedent for the way mining companies use and pay for the use of buffer land surrounding coal mining operations in other parts of NSW.

The dispute began in 2018 when the council re-categorised 6,600 hectares of land surrounding the Mangoola open-cut mine, 18 kilometres west of Muswellbrook, from "farmland" to "mining land", significantly increasing the rates it would need to pay.

The land was being managed by cattle-grazing company Colinta Holdings, itself owned by Glencore. The council argued that, because the region suffered from a severe drought during the rating year of 2016-17, the land was not used for that purpose and was instead used predominantly for mining-related activities.

The land had an easement over it to supply water and electricity to the mine, Aboriginal Cultural Heritage offset and Habitat Enhancement Offset areas, as well as environmental monitoring equipment and mining exploration.

The council had an initial win in the NSW Land and Environment Court, but Mangoola Coal won on appeal in the Supreme Court where the three judges upheld five out of eight grounds of appeal.

The judges agreed that the level of grazing was "subdued" due to the drought. But the easement occupied only a little over 1 per cent of the land, and cattle grazing was interrupted "only to a trifling extent" by the presence of infrastructure, therefore mining could not be regarded as the dominant use, they said.

They sent the matter back to the Land and Environment Court for re-determination but the council will now seek leave to appeal that decision in the High Court.

Glencore has formerly welcomed the NSW Court of Appeal decision, but made no further comment on Monday in relation to the council's bid to take it one step further.

The development comes at a time when there is a renewed interest in the region in the lead up to the Upper Hunter by-election on May 22.

The Upper Hunter has been long held by the Nationals and its loss will be a blow to the Berejiklian government. The major parties' policies on energy and climate are likely to be key factors.

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