But despite the millions of dollars expected to be offered for her slice of Camberwell, 75-year-old Wendy Bowman is standing firm, insisting she will not sell until the mining giants or the State Government pledge $2 million to a study on the effects of coalmining on Upper Hunter communities.

Ashton Coal would have to buy Mrs Bowman's 190-hectare property to fully realise its plans for two new open-cut areas south of the New England Highway, opposite the tiny village.

The coalminer has already bought about 35 of the 50 village residences it made offers on.

Mrs Bowman said she feared the new open-cuts would force out the remaining residents, spelling the end of the historic hamlet.

"I'm not going to be responsible for wrecking that whole village," Mrs Bowman said. "It will choke on the dust of the new mines."

She has had her property valued and, while not wanting to give an exact figure, agreed it would fetch "several millions of dollars".

Ashton Coal is yet to make a formal offer. Brian Flannery, managing director of Felix Resources, which part-owns Ashton, said the company was waiting for Mrs Bowman to return its calls.

He said the company was not planning an expansion, but rather was looking to continue its open-cut production at two new sites, which were crucial to it maintaining its 160-strong workforce into the future.

Ashton has argued the mine has no health effects on the community.

Mrs Bowman said she would ignore any offers until the effects of mining on the region were known.

The Planning Department said in December last year it would commission an independent study of the cumulative effects of mining on Camberwell.

Mrs Bowman has welcomed the study but wants an Upper Hunter-wide examination of the health effects of mining.

She also wants the Department of Environment and Climate Change to move two real-time air-quality monitors from the Lower Hunter to the Upper Hunter.

The department said population densities at Singleton and Muswellbrook did not justify such a move and that major mines in the area were required to operate more than 30 of their own air filters.

But it acknowledged data from the mines' filters was "not readily accessible" to the public and said it was working with the industry to improve access