Whitehaven Coal’s shares rose to the highest level in a year after the miner said it had been oversubscribed by lenders and suitors clamouring for minority stakes in its new coking coal mines as part of the producer’s steel industry pivot.

More than 90 per cent of Whitehaven’s sales in the past three months were thermal coal for power generation, but the miner expects about 50 per cent of its future sales to be coking coal for steelmaking, after last year’s $6.4 billion agreement to buy BHP’s Blackwater and Daunia mines.