Probing works. It is effective for all types of mines, achieves 100% clearance and poses very low risk to the operator except in the case of booby-trapped mines (which are in the minority, and are known to be absent in many areas requiring clearance).

The problem is the cost. One person can clear only 20 to 50 square metres per day, depending on the number of false alarms due to rocks, munitions fragments, and other objects in the soil. Even considering the low wages paid for this work in many regions, and assuming no new mines are laid, demining proceeds at a minuscule rate compared to the area mined. At the present clearance rate, it will take more than 4000 years to remove all the mines laid in Afghanistan during the conflict with the Soviet Union.