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The board secretary at China's Yanzhou Coal Mining contradicted previous statements from Whitehaven that it was on its short list of bidders.

There is now speculation that Yanzhou, which owns Yancoal Australia after acquiring Felix Resources in 2010, will merge it with Whitehaven to create a company with an annual production of 60 million tones.

If it makes a successful bid for Whitehaven, Yanzhou might seek consent from the Foreign Investment Review Board to delay listing its Yancoal Australia subsidiary, as it will need time to integrate Whitehaven’s mines.

In gaining FIRB 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.

“Direct financing channels in different currencies are available by taking advantages of the listing platform, thus providing direct financing at low cost,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shenhua Watermark has slammed recent allegations it is not being honest and up front with its stakeholders as a blatant attempt to mislead the community.

Watermark project director Joe Clayton said he wants to “set the record straight”

“Watermark did submit a Major Projects Application and Preliminary Environmental Assessment under the previous Part 3A process as per the project’s timeline,” he said.

“Discussions occurred in March between the then Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Mr Duncan Gay, and myself which resulted in Shenhua agreeing to have its project assessed against the Coalitions Strategic Lands Use Policy.

“This has not changed. Shenhua Watermark will work with the NSW Liberals and Nationals Strategic Regional Land Use Policy as it continues to develop the Watermark Project.

“We are carrying out some baseline studies and key environmental assessments to identify the potential benefits and impacts of the project.

“It would be remiss of us to not use this time wisely and get as much information as we can.”

Clayton said the company was in the process of establishing Community Reference Groups, but this was not a legislative requirement, nor was it a requirement of the Part 3A process.

“This is our initiative to engage our local community to ensure all community and environmental issues are identified to the project team,” he said.

“The Community Reference Groups are an exciting opportunity for interested and passionate community representatives to impart their local knowledge and be involved in the activities we are doing on site,” said Clayton.

“Surely we can’t be criticised for proactively engaging the community.”

Watermark will advise the community when legislation has been released.