The ASEAN Minerals Cooperation Action Plan (AMCAP-III) Phase 2: 2021-2025  aims to boost domestic and international investments in all component of the  minerals value chain across ASEAN Member States and increase investment  flows to the region.

ASEAN targets to promote the region as a minerals investment destination,  starting with minerals exploration. Key to achieving this are improvements in  the quality as well as availability of precompetitive geoscience data and mineral  development and production data to potential investors, and, the packaging  and promotion of datasets to effectively attract investor attention.

The availability of robust geological and resource data, both pre-competitive  and historical company data to the exploration industry and prospective  investors during the initial exploration stage is essential to initial success  and determines the viability of moving to the next stages of the exploration  and resource development cycle. Since minerals development is a high-risk  business, all work that is done during the exploration stages (i.e., generation,  primary exploration, and evaluation) specifically would focus on collecting more  information that will progressively lower risks as investment increases.

The initial stage of minerals exploration (i.e., the generative stage in minerals  exploration) therefore involves extensive desktop study to review existing  datasets for minerals prospectivity. As such, a region or a country that provides  as much of this information at the outset would assist investors to de-risk  prospective exploration investments, thereby lowering barriers to entry and  making the region more attractive.

This first version of the ASEAN Minerals Exploration Strategy - Version 1 (2023)  - seeks to provide a coordinated set of strategies for improving geological  prospectivity in ASEAN from the perspective of the investor, including a specific  plan to collect and process the data that underpins the information base for  marketing exploration in ASEAN. Such data are intended to be made accessible  via the ASEAN Minerals Information System (AMIS).