China unveils AI-powered mineral exploration, geological mapping systems

TIANJIN, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday unveiled two mineral exploration and geological mapping systems powered by AI. The launch marks their global debut and aims to make geological workflows more efficient and intelligent.

A humanoid robot of China Mobile is pictured at the exhibition area of the 2025 Global Industrial Internet Conference in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, Sept. 7, 2025. (Photo: Xinhua)

The two systems, AI-OreSeeking and AI-GeoMapping, were released by the Ministry of Natural Resources at the ongoing 28th China Mining Conference and Exhibition held in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

Traditionally, mineral prospecting has relied heavily on experts to analyze data from multiple sources. The AI-OreSeeking system integrates data, knowledge, algorithms, models and tools used in mineral exploration to automate the prospecting workflow. This shifts the process from experience-driven to intelligence-enabled.

The new system can gather and integrate multi-source geoscience data, interpret and extract key mineralization information, delineate favorable prospecting areas, estimate mineral reserves, generate professional maps in batches, and produce evaluation reports.

Test data from AI-OreSeeking show that mineral prediction and evaluation that once took half a year can now be completed in just one week.

So far, it has been trialled in more than 100 projects across over 10 provincial-level regions in China, including Xizang, Xinjiang, Fujian, Shandong and Inner Mongolia.

As for geological mapping, it is like drawing a navigation map for the subsurface mineral world, said Ren Shoumai, an official with the China Geological Survey.

The AI-GeoMapping system is designed to cover the full process from preliminary research, data collection, to map generation and map compilation. It can identify geological bodies with an overall accuracy exceeding 90 percent and improves the efficiency of data processing, integrated analysis, and geological map compilation by more than 50 percent compared to traditional methods.

The system has been trialled in nearly 100 map sheets at a scale of 1:50,000 across Qinghai, Xizang, Xinjiang, Fujian and other provincial-level regions in China. The system has also been promoted and applied in countries such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Laos.

The two systems, independently developed by the China Geological Survey, are expected to provide a technical reference for the intelligent transformation of global mineral exploration and inject new momentum into global geological survey technological innovation, said Ren at the conference.

Themed "Win-Win Cooperation, Green and Intelligent," the event has attracted more than 650 domestic and overseas enterprises. Running from Thursday to Saturday, it features forums, exhibitions and mining rights trading activities, focusing on topics that include high-quality development of the mining sector and mine ecological restoration.