Group chairman Geoff Loudon yesterday confirmed the listing proposal, either by way of a back-door listing through an existing company or initial public offering.
It was already being arranged by Brisbane brokers and he hoped the listing would go ahead before the end of the year.
"We would want to go straight into [drilling] it and get going as soon as possible," Mr Loudon said.
He anticipated investment in the listing would be open to both institutional and small investors, Mr Loudon told the Otago Daily Times while attending the New Zealand branch of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) conference in Queenstown yesterday.
L&M has already spent about $13 million to date test-drilling for coal seam (methane) gas, largely around Southland, and is drilling in Southland, having completed two bores of a seven-hole programme, with work scheduled to resume in September with better weather.
L&M Coal Seam Gas Ltd chief executive Kent Anson updated conference delegates yesterday on work at its four permit areas, in Ohai, Kaitangata, Hawkdun and Winton, where a total 11 holes have been drilled.
Good methane gas shows of 98% were present in some area and several areas had 15m-50m-thick coal seams at depths up to 500m.
We are looking at an aggressive programme over the next two years; expecting up to 50 wells, he said.
Commercialisation options included LNG and CNG, which could be used in Queenstown, Dunedin, Invercargill or Christchurch, petrochemical applications, power generation, reticulation and the transport sector.
L&M listed in January 2007, raising $20 million, and the present southern drilling programme retains $8.3 million to see it through this year.
Mr Loudon said the listing would cover a more than year-long programme to the end of 2011.
• Reporter Simon Hartley is a guest of AusIMM at the conference.
