It is just after sunrise.

The cool morning air hovers over Cobar, in central-western New South Wales.

Workers just starting their shift are quietly filing into a cage — a cage that will take them 600 metres below ground.

There's a screech as the metal roller door slams shut.

A clunk. And then they disappear into darkness.

They won't see daylight again for 12 hours.

It's like another world. The ABC has been given rare access.

Graham 'Bart' Bartlett at the lowest point of the Peak gold mine, almost 2 kilometres underground. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

The mine is nearly 2 kilometres deep, with small pockets of light and activity built around dark, winding tunnels.

Miners are paired with machines.

Front-end loaders and dump trucks scrape scrape up and carry rock, throwing up a wall of noise.

A loader scraping up rocks in the mine. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

A worker preparing the jumbo drill, the master of all machines. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

While the master of them all, the jumbo, uses claw-like drills to pick open seams of copper and gold.

In a rock recess, a small, yellow refuge chamber stands sentinel.

This shelter has enough oxygen to keep four miners alive for 36 hours.

It's a permanent reminder of the inherent dangers.

For some, this could be a claustrophobic and threatening environment — yet for most people in Cobar, it's just life.

One of the refuge chambers in the mine. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

"There wouldn't be many families in town that don't work in the mines," mine supervisor Graham "Bart" Bartlett said.

"It's in everyone's blood.

"I'm born and bred Cobar.

"It's my life. I love the place."

But Cobar is close to running out of the one thing that its 4,000 residents and four mines all need to survive.

Water.

"It's the biggest worry everyone's got," Mr Bartlett said.

Graham Bartlett's reflection in a pool of water. He's spent 25 years in the mines. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

A Peak mine worker underground in a puddle of water — the critical element for mining. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

The town's regular supply is expected to run out in May.

Without water, there is no mining.

And according to Cobar Shire Council general manager Peter Vlatko: "Without the mines, there is no town."

So the search is on for a solution.

Looking for liquid gold

Water is vital across the mining production process, from ensuring the giant drills don't overheat to dampening down the dust, crushing the ore and making the slurry that will deliver the metal concentrates.

Like Dubbo, Cobar's residents and businesses draw their water from Burrendong Dam, which now holds less than 3 per cent of its capacity.

The Peak gold mine usually buys enough dam water annually to fill 440 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

A worker hoses down the mine area above ground to control dust. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

A truck leaves a dust trail behind it. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

But because of drought, its allocation this year has been cut by a third.

And it could be cut completely, even before Burrendong runs dry, according to Neil Valk, the general manager of Peak Gold Mine.

Aurelia Metals, which owns the mine, is urgently looking for alternatives in the place it knows best: below ground, in the flooded tunnels and shafts of the historic Great Cobar mine.

Once Australia's biggest copper mine, it closed 100 years ago. Water has since seeped into and filled its old workings, like an underground dam.

With its government approvals just finalised, Peak is now in a race against time to install a pump at the old mine to extract and pipe the water to its current operations.

Mr Valk said the old workings potentially held enough water to keep Peak afloat for three years.

Neil Valk walking through the remains of the Great Cobar mine. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

Tapping that source would mean the mine wouldn't have to rely on Burrendong Dam, leaving more water for the people of Cobar, he said.

The NSW Government has promised that no town will be left without critical water supplies, even if the taps run dry.

"They keep telling us that they're going to bring a train full of water down here," Mr Vlatko said.

"But [it's] no use having water for the town if the mines have to close.

"We do have a wonderful farming community here as well, but the reality is that when the mines employ technically over 1,000 people, that's a big business that needs to be here."

Without mining there is no Cobar, and without water there is no mining. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )



Water on the mind

In the town centre itself, the topic of water is never far from conversation.

At Molly Negfeldt's house, where both front and back lawns have been reduced to red dirt, her children are not immune.

"A few of my friends have to move because the water's running out," Ella, 8, told the ABC after bouncing on the trampoline out the back.

Molly Negfeldt, here with her daughter, said everyone in town was feeling the pressure. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

"The kids hear all of the chatter and … they all believe that [we] will have no water," her mother Molly said.

"I think people are frightened that there will be no water and then, in turn, there will be no jobs."

And according to families who spoke to the ABC, many have already left.

Without mining — and water — Cobar would not exist. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of mining in Cobar. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

Mr Vlatko said he would like the Government to make a "clear commitment" to improving water delivery to ensure the town's long-term future.

He claims half the water that leaves Burrendong Dam for Cobar is lost through seepage and evaporation before it completes its 400km journey.

From the dam, the water travels down the Macquarie River to Warren, where it enters the Albert Priest Channel, a 70km open, dirt channel built in the 1940s.

At the end of the channel, the water gathers in the Nyngan weir pools where it's pumped and piped 130km to Cobar.

The Albert Priest Channel has seen better days. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

"So piping the Albert Priest Channel, or creating a piping system that will get all the way here and save a lot of water, makes sense."

The NSW Government has set aside $1 million to repair leaks in the open channel and has promised to increase the amount of water that can be stored at the end of the channel for Cobar.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the long-term plan was to replace the channel with a pipeline, but he has given no timeframe.

Looking to the future

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of mining in Cobar, with the townspeople hoping they'll be able to celebrate with all the mines still working.

Molly Negfeldt is optimistic.

Molly Negfeldt with her two children. ( ABC News: Brendan Esposito )

"We've seen a lot of negative focus on the day-zero water approach," she said.

"No one seems to be focusing on all of the proactive measures that the mines are taking to make sure that it doesn't actually ever hit."

Back at Peak, Neal Valk said the mine was operating on half the water it normally would and planned to be self-sufficient next year.

It has invested $50 million in a new ore processing plant and a reverse osmosis facility is next.

He said that would allow the mine to treat the water it drew from underground to the point where it was pure enough to drink and would help secure the mine's future, as well as Cobar's.