Exploring Timor-Leste
Mineral and Hydrocarbon Potential

This mineral investment promotion report, entitled “Exploring Timor-Leste: Mineral and Hydrocarbon Potential”, was designed and compiled for the Government of Timor-Leste by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in consultation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the Secretary of State for Natural and Mineral Resources in Dili, Timor-Leste. The report is based on the lengthy ESCAP report entitled “Natural and Mineral Resources Inventory, Policy and Development Strategy”, which was prepared by the ESCAP secretariat during 2002 in execution of UNDP Special Services for Policy and Programme Development Project TI/01/022. The purpose of the report is to prepare an inventory of the mineral and hydrocarbon resources of this newly independent country, to make a preliminary evaluation of the mineral and hydrocarbon potential of the country and to recommend mining policy, legislation and regulations that would both satisfy the needs of the Government an investors. The most significant conclusion coming out of the ESCAP’s work in the country and the report is that Timor-Leste does have mineral potential in base metals, mainly copper, and associated gold and silver and that some of that potential will almost certainly attract foreign mining companies. Oil and gas potential in Timor-Leste has long been recognized and investor interest is already apparent. The report aims to generate interest among geoscientists, the international mining and petroleum community and financial institutions in the further research of the geology, mineral and hydrocarbon resources of Timor-Leste and investment promotion in the development of mineral-based and petroleum industries of the country.