With annual wages starting about $70,000 and reaching $160,000 for qualified workers, Hunter mines have recorded an influx of women looking to earn their share in the industry.

"We are seeing more women coming into all areas," Xstrata Coal spokesman James Rickards said.

"More female graduates are putting their engineering and science courses into practice, and then we're seeing the untrained women coming from more traditional backgrounds looking for a new start."

For Singleton's Ashleigh Neville, 22, the decision to trade her hospitality job for a career in mining was easy.

"I used to work 72 hours a week at a pub for less than $600. Now I take home around $1000," Ms Neville said.

Out of 50 applicants for the traineeship role at Anglo Coal Australia's Drayton mine near Muswellbrook, Ms Neville was one of 46 women.

"My dad's a miner, my uncle's a miner and both my brothers are miners. There's just no other industry where you can make money like you do in mining," she said.

While some female workers have taken administration roles, others like Ms Neville are driving mining trucks more than three times their height and the woman's touch has not gone unnoticed.

"They're gentler on the gears and they say they keep the trucks cleaner," Mr Rickards said.

Six months into her 12-month traineeship, Ms Neville has bought two properties and is now looking to buy a third.

"In hospitality I would never have been able to buy them," she said.

While mining has been traditionally seen as a male-dominated industry, Ms Neville agreed that trend was on its way out and women were on their way in.

"There are heaps of women starting," she said.

"The best part is that from the first moment I got out there everyone was so supportive. There are the men my age and then there are the older guys who have been there since the beginning, and they'll tell you stories about the first women who ever entered the pit."

Ms Neville's partner will soon follow in her footsteps after finishing an induction at a Rio Tinto mining pit last week before starting a traineeship.

"I think he was a little envious of me being the breadwinner," Ms Neville said.