With about 6.5 billion tonnes of untapped reserves, Mongolia's soils contain almost 70% of all known types of minerals.

Its soils contain copper, gold, iron ore, coal, zinc, nickel, silver and tin.

Oyu Tolgoi in the Gobi desert has the world's largest undeveloped copper and gold deposit.

It aims to produce 450 000 tonnes of copper and 300 000 ounces of gold each year.

Now a huge section of the field has been sold to international mining companies, for a $7bn up-front investment.

Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan reports from south Gobi, Mongolia.