Drayton mine is located near the township of Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales. It is an open cut mine using both dragline and truck and shovel to produce thermal coal for export markets. Currently production is approximately five Mtpa, employing approximately 310 permanent employees with contractors to support operations.

Overburden and interburden is predominantly removed by the dragline and the excavators, with assistance where required from front-end loaders. Overburden, parting and coal thicker than two metres is blasted. All overburden and parting material is moved to tips located within the previously mined areas.

Mineral processing at Drayton is undertaken through the Drayton CHP. This facility comprises of a washery, fines plant, crushers, two stackers, two bucket-wheel reclaimers and a series of overland conveyor belts. In 2011 a coal fines plant within the existing coal handling plant was commissioned.

Rear dump coal trucks deliver ROM coal into a 400 tonne capacity ROM hopper. ROM coal is crushed and then washed in the coal preparation plant or bypassed straight to product. This decision is based on the expected quality of the feed coal reconciled with online ash analyser trends. The washed product is then sampled before reporting to the export coal stockpiles.