(Yicai) Sept. 11 -- China's natural resources ministry today unveiled two artificial intelligence-based systems designed to improve the efficiency of mineral exploration and geological mapping.

The AI-OreSeeking and AI-GeoMapping systems were unveiled at the 2026 China International Mining Conference in Tianjin, with the former already tested in hundreds of mineral exploration projects across more than 10 provincial-level regions and boosting overall workflow efficiency by more than 60 percent, The Paper reported.

AI-OreSeeking, independently developed by the ministry's geological research agency, China Geological Survey, can be used to survey, explore, and evaluate various solid mineral resources, including gold, iron, copper, aluminum, and lithium.

The new system is expected to help reduce the time and costs of field exploration by narrowing down target areas, as China steps up efforts to explore and develop its mineral resources.

By integrating a nationwide, multi-scale geological and mineral database, AI-OreSeeking can handle the entire mineral exploration workflow, including automatically extracting geological data, identifying key mineralization information, pinpointing promising exploration areas, estimating mineral resource reserves, and generating evaluation reports.

The natural resources ministry has conducted preliminary trials of the system in hundreds of mineral exploration projects in more than 10 provincial-level regions, including the Xizang Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Fujian and Shandong provinces, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Trial data showed that AI-OreSeeking can effectively narrow mineral exploration target areas, significantly reducing the time and economic costs associated with blind field exploration and improving overall workflow efficiency by more than 60 percent.

China Steps Up Mineral Exploration

China has been stepping up the exploration and development of mineral resources in recent years. As of the end of last year, the country's investment in geological exploration and fixed-asset investment in the mining industry had both increased for five consecutive years, according to a report released by the natural resources ministry at the conference today.

China also ranks first globally in proven reserves of 14 minerals, including rare earths, tungsten, tin, and molybdenum, the report showed.

The natural resources ministry also unveiled AI-GeoMapping at the conference. The system can be used in various geological survey scenarios, including mineral, hydrological, environmental, and ecological surveys, The Paper reported.

AI-GeoMapping can improve the efficiency of geological mapping while significantly reducing the workload of field operations in challenging areas and lowering safety risks, the report added.

The system has been tested in several provincial-level regions in China and has also been promoted and applied in a number of countries, including Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

Editor: Emmi Laine