The small gas-focused developer is in good company at its latest endeavour, which was initially applied for more than four years ago.

Liberty managing director Andrew Haythorpe said the long-awaited granting of tenement EPC 1949 opened up a new realm of possibilities for the company.

“We find ourselves in a rare position for a small company being completely surrounded by some of the world’s major coal companies, within a prolific coal basin,” Haythorpe said.

BHP, Rio Tinto, Peabody and Vale surround the tenement, with one mine as close as 700m to the border.

“There is the exciting potential for the discovery of coal on our permit and numerous monetisation operations available to us should exploration prove successful,” Haythorpe added.

Liberty said in a statement on Wednesday that it planned to begin a maiden drill campaign within the month to prove up a JORC standard resource at the wholly owned 30sq.km tenement, located about 170km southwest of Mackay.

The holding is in addition to Liberty’s primary focus on the initial development of a proposed $1.4 billion Queensland gas treatment plant, linked to an eventual larger scale upgrade of the project to a $4 billion integrated low-cost gas, electricity and fertiliser complex.

Liberty plans to use emerging environmentally friendly technology of injecting saline water and oxygen into coal seams to generate natural hydrocarbon-enriched syngas to bring coal seams to the surface on the company’s large Denison tenements.

Haythorpe said early planning for a drill program on the company’s newest asset recognised the shallowness of the coal seams in the area and the near-term potential to develop a commercially attractive JORC coal resource.

“We lodged an application for this tenement with the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines in 2009 – four years ago – and not only has it taken that long to secure access but we have well moved on in advancing our low-cost gas and fertiliser aspirations on the east coast and potentially overseas,” Haythorpe said.

“The tenement is a high quality asset surrounded by existing coal mining and export infrastructure, at a time some coal types continue to attract premium prices globally because of supply constraints.

“As the local regional coal seams are shallow, it is anticipated that a drilling schedule of around 20 holes or so at no more than 100 metres or so depth will be sufficient to generate a JORC standard estimate if drilling is successful.”

Liberty’s urea aspirations have already drawn interest from Japanese powerhouse Marubeni which has signed a letter of intent for 1 million tonnes per annum of urea and ammonia over a period of 25 years.

The company’s winning streak may continue, with its 2009 review of the Bowen Basin permit concluding that any coal on the permit is likely to be high quality coking coal similar to that being mined at the nearby projects.