The US Geographical Survey has mapped nearly 70 percent of Afghanistan mineral resources using advanced technology known as ‘hyperspectral imaging’, the Afghan Ministry of Mines said.

The technology is using cameras to capture sunlight reflected from the ground which specifies colours on the mineral map reflecting different natural minerals as well as man-made minerals, vegetation, and snow.

“Seventy percent of Afghanistan’s soil was surveyed using the hyperspectral imaging technology. It determined the ores of unique metals, high price stones and metals, determining them physically and structurally,” Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines spokesman Ahmad Tamim Asi told TOLOnews on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the US Geographical Survey Department Alex Demas told Radio Free Europe that the survey was launched in 24 areas of Afghanistan to determine high profile mines such oil, gold, metal, cobalt, and lithium.

“This imagery allows us to identify with very good accuracy where certain types of materials are, and this is very useful, especially for the mining industry,” Demas said in the report. “In fact, the USGS and the Afghan Geological Survey have already identified, using this information, 24 areas of high-profile mining interests.”

The information will be useful to attract international investors who are interested in the mining potential.

International mining companies have made huge investments in Afghan mining in recent years with Mes Aynak and Hajigak copper mines contracted by Chinese and Indian companies respectively.