In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Whitehaven said it would now be seeking new growth opportunities and developing its existing coal assets, which include the Narrabri North mine in the Gunnedah Basin of New South Wales.

“Following further negotiation of these proposals, the Whitehaven board has now determined that no proposal is sufficiently attractive to warrant recommendation to shareholders,” the company said.

“The process has therefore been terminated.”

In October last year, following numerous informal approaches to the company over several months, Whitehaven began a formal process to enable selected interested parties to conduct due diligence and submit proposals for a potential corporate transaction with the company.

In February Whitehaven said it had received a number of non-binding indicative proposals and a selected short-list of parties had been invited to complete detailed due diligence and submit binding proposals.

In April the company said the formal process was reaching a conclusion with shortlisted parties having completed due diligence and submitted formal proposals.

There is now speculation about the next moves from Yanzhou, which owns Yancoal Australia after acquiring Felix Resources in 2010.

In gaining Foreign Investment Review Board approval to acquire Felix, Yanzhou agreed to float Yancoal on the Australian Securities Exchange by the end of 2012 and to own less than 70% of the company at that time.

Yanzhou chairman Li Weimin discussed the merits of the Yancoal float in the company’s recent annual report.