News: WHC UPDATE 1-Australia's Whitehaven Coal posts about 4% rise in Q2 production

(Adds details of results in paragraphs 2-5 - advisory)

Jan 19 (Reuters) - Australia's Whitehaven Coal (WHC) posted a near 4% rise in its second-quarter production on Friday, bolstered by strong performance at its Maules Creek and Gunnedah open-cut mines.

The country's top independent coal miner recorded a 50% rise in coal production from its Maules Creek mine, while production at Gunnedah's open-cut mines rose more than 6%, compared with a year earlier.

But the production from its Narrabri coal mine was impacted by geological challenges during the quarter, Whitehaven said.

The company's managed run-of-mine (ROM) coal production came in at 5.0 million tonnes (Mt) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with 4.8 Mt reported a year earlier and a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 4.7 Mt.

However, on a sequential basis, Whitehaven's coal production for the quarter fell nearly 6% from the September quarter.