Last month the steelmaker took up a 14.9% stake in Macarthur and has been holding talks with the coal miner; however, these ended yesterday with no “proposal for a transaction” to the coal miner’s board.

Macarthur chairman Keith De Lacy said a strong positive outlook remained for the company and it would continue to work with ArcelorMittal as one of its major shareholders and customers.

“This situation has no impact on the day-to-day operations of Macarthur Coal,” De Lacy said.

“We will continue to focus on running and growing the business and delivering value to our shareholders.”

There had been high expectations ArcelorMittal would make a bid for Macarthur.

Earlier this week Macarthur founder Ken Talbot resigned from the board to give himself "greater flexibility to fully deal" with his remaining 19.76% stake in Macarthur.

Observers are now speculating that Korean steelmaker Posco could be the next in line to make a bid for Talbot's remaining stake.