Rescue teams were struggling today to find nine workers trapped underground after a landslide at a gold mine in eastern Turkey, the interior ministry said, with state media saying four people had been detained as an investigation began.
Investigations for nine missing persons in Turkey
The landslide occurred yesterday, Tuesday, in the afternoon in Ilic, Erzijan province. State broadcaster TRT Haber reported that the mine’s field manager is among those detained.
Gold miner SSR Mining suspended production at the mine yesterday. The incident led to a more than 50% drop in the company’s stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange. “Our search and rescue operations will continue day and night,” Interior Minister Ali Gerlikaya said. “Our hope is for positive news and we are working towards it.”
Of the nine missing, five are believed to be in a container house, three in a vehicle and one in a truck, the minister said from the scene of the disaster. About 1,700 people were involved in the efforts, including 339 workers in search and rescue teams.
Security footage shows a huge pile of dirt, which authorities say had been processed for gold and deposited in the hills, collapsing and pouring like lava into a valley in a ‘deluge’ of dirt and stones, with clouds of dust rising into the sky.
A cyanide landslide occurred in Çöpler Gold Mine in İliç, Erzincan.
It is unknown how many mine workers are under the rubble. pic.twitter.com/7Spi6alrdu— İSİG Assembly (@isigmeclisi) February 13, 2024
Gerlikaya said about 200 meters of the hillside collapsed. According to him, initial findings showed that the volume of the landslide was 10 million cubic meters of earth that moved 800 meters at a speed of 10 meters per second.
New images from the disaster at Çöpler Gold Mine: Reflected on vehicle camera pic.twitter.com/6dfgY3sVS8
— BirGün Newspaper (@BirGun_Gazetesi) February 14, 2024
The soil came within a few kilometers of the Euphrates River, the great river that flows through TurkeySyria and Iraq, raising concerns that the soil will contain cyanide, which is used in gold mining.
Non-governmental organizations and professional bodies today called for the mine to be closed. “Not only our nature and our resources have been slaughtered, but also our lives,” the gold mine in Ilic “must be closed immediately,” the Association of Chambers of Architects and Engineers of Turkey said in a statement today.
“Millions of tons of toxic waste are flowing into the Euphrates … Close the mine,” Illic’s Environment and Nature Platform reacted. The Chamber of Engineers of Mines of Turkey denounced on its part “a series of negligences” that caused a “great environmental disaster”. The Ministry of the Environment announced yesterday that it is taking measures to “prevent the flow of materials into the Euphrates”.
According to iefimerida, the operating company Anagold stated that samples were taken from streams and rivers in the area and no contamination has been detected, no cyanide has leaked into the river and there is no danger regarding the waste disposal basin.
The mine, which employs 667 workers, came under fire in 2022 after a cyanide leak prompted authorities to temporarily suspend operations. It reopened after paying a fine, which had sparked strong opposition.
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