To verify the effects of soil survey in the area of arid desert landscape in northern Chile, the authors conducted sample size fraction experiment, and the results show that the sampling horizon is B or B＋C soil and the best sampling size fraction is -40 mesh grain size. Through applying the method to soil survey, some Cu, Au and other anomalies were delineated, several new copper ore bodies were found. The centers of the anomalies coincide well with the copper ore bodies. The effect of soil survey is fairly good. Nevertheless, anomaly inspection shows that arid desert landscape is not conducive to the formation of geochemical anomalies, and the role of 1:50,000 soil measurement in controlling the anomaly is limited. It is therefore better to use the large-scale geochemical survey.