A worker drills a deep hole in the sand with an auger in Hanggin Banner, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Sept 19, 2017. [Photo by Sun Wanming/chinadaily.com.cn]

In the efforts to reforest the Kubuqi desert, the Elion company also explored several "minimally invasive techniques" to reduce the damage to the soil structure.

"We have adopted hydraulic planting, auger planting and drone planting methods," said Sun Yongqiang, deputy general manager of ecological development at the Elion Resources Group.

"Auger planting takes less than 20 seconds to plant a tree. This method doesn't affect the soil structure and will keep moisture in the sand," he explained.

In areas with enough groundwater, hydraulic planting method is more efficient. Its survival rate is above 90 percent, compared with a 10-percent rate when using the traditional shovel-digging method.