Owners of Queensland’s lucrative Kestrel coking coal mine say they will put the operation on the market, kick-starting a multibillion-dollar auction and escalating the deal fever that has swept the sector over the past year.

Kestrel is Australia’s sixth-largest coking coal mine, according to analysts at resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie, and generated $1.26 billion of cash flow from operations and $474.5 million of net profit in the past two years.