The final reports from the NSW Chief Scientist's Independent Expert Panel for Mining in the Catchment have been revealed, with dozens of recommendations on assessing mining in catchment areas.

Among the findings were that longwall mining was having worse impacts than predicted, with water losses from mining in the catchment of up to 8ML a day.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes announced the freeze while releasing the reports on Thursday.

"The Panel made 50 detailed recommendations which the NSW Government will review and respond to in due course," Mr Stokes said.

"In the interim, no new development applications for mining in the Special Areas will be determined."

Related: Mine may risk cracking dam walls, says WaterNSW

The minister's office confirmed this would include the applications which were in the system, but which had not yet determined.

This will include Dendrobium, where South32 wants to expand the mine for 30 years, and Russell Vale, where Wollongong Coal wants to get started again after years of shutdowns.

Related: South32 warns steelworks could close with Dendrobium expansion

But their plans will be up against the reports' findings that water losses have been worse than expected, and damage to swamps may be irreversible.

"Available estimates show that the upper limit of recent loss rate totalled over the Dendrobium, Wongawilli and Russell Vale mines is an average of 8 ML/day and for the Dendrobium Mine alone is less than 5 ML/day," the report said.

"Loss rates from both Dendrobium and Metropolitan mines are expected to increase as the area of excavated coal seams increase."

The report said these quantities were "low" compared to other aspects of water supply - the Sydney desalination plant can produce 250ML/day and infrastructure leaks across Greater Sydney were about 130ML/day.