The New South Wales resource minister says activists holding up Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine are “professional protesters”, not locals.

New South Wales acting Minister for Resources Kevin Humphries says most of the people protesting against the project have been brought in to further the agenda of a small but vocal slice of the community.

The organisers of several protest camps, Front Line Action on Coal and the Maules Creek Community Council, have been fighting to stop construction at the Maules Creek mine.

Activists have been locking themselves to gates, structures and machinery to hold up the State and Federal government-backed projects at the Maules Creek, Werrris Creek, Tarrawonga and Rocglen coal mines.

In an interview on ABC radio, acting resource minister and former Maules Creek resident Mr Humphries said he was not convinced that all the vocal local sentiment was genuine.

“You will always have some people who don't want to have anything happening in their backyard and that's legitimate, no one's got a problem with that,” he said.

“But most of those people who are protesting are professional protesters, they are pretty much down to a man and a woman paid.

Humphries also slammed “senior political leaders” who he says condone the protest activity, such as Greens Senator for NSW Lee Rhiannion’s online encouragement and congratulation of activists.

It seems that mining would be easy if it weren’t for these meddling activists, according to Whitehaven CEO Paul Flynn.

Speaking at a business luncheon last year, Mr Flynn said “activism has been a big part of... the twists and turns we've had to take in order to move this project forward”.

“It has been a hard grind... this has changed the views of our partners about where they want to invest their dollars,” Flynn said.