Between 2003 and 2006, however, foreign investors from Australia, China, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States began to express their interest in Cambodia's potential for offshore oil and gas as well as such land-based metallic minerals as bauxite, copper, gold, and iron ore, and such industrial minerals as gemstones and limestone.
[1] The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME) is the main government agency that implements the country's mineral law and policy.
A total of 139 exploration projects were authorized under the licenses granted, out of which 13 had been licensed to conduct mining projects[2] In early 2013, Chinese engineering firm Sinomach China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp and Cambodian Petrochemical Company announced they would jointly build a $2.3 billion oil refinery in Sihanoukville, which would be the first oil refinery in the country.
Ltd., which had 100% interest in two gold projects in the Ban Lung and the Ou Ya Dav/Andoung Meas areas in Ratanakiri Province, was acquired by Great Australian Resources Ltd. (GAR).
Block A, which covers a 6,278-square-kilometer (km2) area of the Khmer Basin in the Gulf of Thailand, was owned by COPCL (55%), Moeco Cambodia Ltd. (an affiliate company of Japan's Mitsui Oil exploration Co.) (30%), and South Korea's GS Caltex Corp.
[1] Onshore oil and gas exploration began in January 2012 by a Japanese firm (JOGMEC) in the Preah Vihear provinceas part of "Basic Agreement for the Study and Survey Program in Block 17".
Block 17 consists of a total area of 6,500 square kilometers of hilly forest in Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear and Siem Reap provinces.