News

Dubai Survey Drones Explore Minerals In Central Asia

The UAVs reduce costs and boost efficiency by replacing helicopters and large teams of researchers and geophysicists.

Published

3 years ago

December 14, 2023

Nour Nasir

dubai survey drones explore minerals in central asia

Microavia

Microavia, a UAE-based company established in Dubai in 2022, delivers drone-based solutions for security, monitoring, and surveying.

Now, the company is helping geologists and researchers explore mineral deposits in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Microavia’s advanced aerial surveying platform, Fortis, provides detailed information about an area’s geological structure, reducing task times by half and drastically cutting costs.

“We have successfully concluded all preflight tests with Microavia Fortis. A special feature of their geodrone is their ability to stay in the air for up to 60 minutes. The drone can carry up to 12 kg of payload. [and has] shown high efficiency in conducting aeromagnetic surveys due to the stability of the flight direction even in strong winds and long flight time,” explained Kirill Bazhin, CEO of Geodevice Kazakhstan.

Microavia drones hover at low altitudes between 40 and 100 meters, scanning the ground in 400-meter-wide sections. Hundreds of miles of land can be surveyed in days instead of weeks or months, and mineral exploration missions can now be undertaken in previously inaccessible areas.

“Big thanks to Microavia for supplying us with their drones for Terra Exploration. The 45-minute flight time with the magnetometer is quite impressive! Moreover, their team provided us with a beneficial and enjoyable pilot course. I can’t wait to start using these drones in our work,” said Nikita Shaliuto, geophysicist of Terra Exploration.

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According to recent reports, aluminum, copper, gold, and lithium deposits fall short of anticipated demand. Central Asia, and especially Kazakhstan, has a vast unexplored reserve of minerals, and drone-based exploration can help speed up their extraction.

Microavia’s export of advanced UAVs is also bolstering efforts by the UAE to diversify its industrial sector from traditional oil, petroleum, and gas production.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.