A conglomerate of 13 coal miners on Wednesday tendered a A$4.85 billion ($4 billion) bid for a rail-track network in the country's biggest coal state. The bid was aimed at preventing the Queensland state to offer the network on the stock market.

The group, including Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Peabody Energy, Yanzhou Coal Mining, Vale, Xstrata, Wesfarmers and Macarthur Coal, said they are willing to buy the network on condition that the Queensland state drop its plan to sell both the track network and the coal haulage business, including trains and wagons, in an initial public offering.

The state has yet to issue a response to the bid of the miners.

"We have considered the alternative model under the IPO ... and strongly believe it does not represent an optimal or even reasonable basis for assuring the future of the state's major export industry," bid consortium chairman Nick Greiner said.

"Importantly, our offer is able to be settled with the government prior to the IPO and will not be dependent on volatile equity markets, removing major risk for the state while also providing early settlement," he added in a statement.

With the bid, the group said the Queensland government should reconsider its plan to offer the network thru IPO to raise an estimated $6 billion, making it the biggest IPO in the country this year.

The group is concerned that whoever emerges as the majority shareholder of the tracks and trains thru the planned IPO, the new owner would exert too much power over the coal industry.