(Reuters) -Australia's Whitehaven Coal posted a 92.7% rise in its second-quarter production on Wednesday, aided by strong contributions from its New South Wales mines and Queensland mines, while remaining optimistic of future gains from metallurgical coal prices due to supply constraints.

Whitehaven anticipates that the long-term production depletion of hard coking coal from Australian producers, along with increased seaborne demand from India, will drive metallurgical coal prices higher. It expects its metallurgical coal portfolio to gain from these supply-constrained market dynamics.

Shares of the country's top independent coal miner rose as much as 4.6%, eyeing its best day in over two weeks, while the benchmark stock index was up 0.7% at 0047 GMT.

The miner's New South Wales operations, which include the Maules Creek and Narrabri mines, recorded a 1.3% rise in its managed run-of-mine (ROM) coal production.

Whitehaven's Blackwater and Daunia mines, which it purchased from BHP Group for $4.1 billion, saw a combined ROM coal production of 4.6 million metric tons for the December quarter. However, this was 14% lower than the September quarter owing to some expected seasonal weather disruptions.

The miner's Daunia mine posted a strong sales volume of 1.5 million tons in the December quarter, up 34% sequentially due to good coal availability, strong demand and improved availability of rail paths on the Goonyella line. Whitehaven is continuing to work on the feasibility studies, including synergies with the Daunia coal mine, it said.

The company earned A$226 per ton of coal sold in the quarter, compared with an average realised price of A$216 per ton a year earlier.

Whitehaven said its managed ROM coal production for the December quarter was 9.7 million tons, compared with 5 million tons produced a year earlier, slightly ahead of the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 9.5 million tons.

"We are on track to deliver firmly in the upper half of FY25 production and sales guidance, and at the low end of our full-year cost guidance range," said Chief Executive Paul Flynn.