Macquarie Bank Ltd., Australia’s largest securities firm, plans to raise about A$2 billion ($1.6 billion) in an initial public offering of mining equipment maker Boart Longyear Group, two people with knowledge of the sale said.

Shares in Salt Lake City, Utah-based Boart will start trading on the Australian Stock Exchange in April, said the people, who declined to be named because details aren’t public. A Macquarie- led group bought control of Boart, which also has operations in Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific, in September, the people said.

“The mining services sector is in a strong bull run, and it’s definitely something that will have appeal,” said Albert Landman, who advises and manages $62 million at Tricom Futures Services in Melbourne. Demand “all depends on pricing.”

Global budgets for metal exploration, excluding iron ore, surged 45 percent last year to a record $7.1 billion, according to Halifax-based Metals Economics Group. Miners, led by BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest, are developing a record A$34.9 billion of projects in Australia to tap global demand for raw materials, the government said in November.

Macquarie bought its stake in Boart from buyout firms Advent International and Bain Capital LLC, according to Boart’s Web site. Stephen Yan, a spokesman for Macquarie in Sydney, wasn’t immediately able to comment. Alison Henriksen, a spokeswoman for Boart who is traveling in Australia, didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Diamond Drills

Advent, Bain and Boart management retained stakes in the company, the people said. Boart’s operations include making diamond drill machines and providing crews for mineral exploration and development.

Since its establishment in 1928, Boart has worked on projects in 50 countries, according to its Web site. The offer documents for the share sale will be made available to individual and professional investors next month, the people said.

Mineral explorers drilled more holes in the U.S. in 2006 than at any time in the past 21 years, the American Petroleum Institute said in a report dated Jan. 16 on its Web site. Natural gas is the main driver for a boom in U.S. exploration, the institute, a lobby group supported by U.S. oil companies, said.

Macquarie selected UBS AG and Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty to help it arrange the Boart offering, the Australian Financial Review reported earlier today. Macquarie ranked second for equity and equity-linked sales in Australia and New Zealand last year, Bloomberg data show. It arranged offers worth $5.4 billion, lagging UBS at $6.8 billion.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joyce Moullakis in Sydney at Jmoullakis2@bloomberg.net