Rescue teams are continuing their search to find the nine workers trapped after a landslide at a gold mine in eastern Turkey, the Interior Ministry said, with state media saying four people have been detained as a search has begun.
The landslide occurred yesterday, Tuesday, in the afternoon in Ilits, Erzizjan province.
State network TRT Haber reported that the mine’s field manager is among those detained. Gold mining company 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,” said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. “Our hope is for positive news and we are working for it.”
Of the nine missing, five are believed to have been in a container house, three in a vehicle and one in a truck, the minister said from the scene. About 1,700 people were involved in the efforts, including 339 workers in search and rescue teams.
Security system images showed a huge pile of soil, which authorities said had been processed for gold and deposited in the hills, collapsing and pouring rapidly like lava into a valley.
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Yerlikaya said about 200 metres 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.
The soil came within a few kilometres of the Euphrates River, the major river that flows through Turkey, Syria and Iraq, raising concerns that the soil would contain cyanide, used in gold mining.
Non-governmental organisations 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 Ilıç “must be closed immediately,” the Union 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,” the Ilits Environment and Nature Platform reacted. For its part, the Chamber of Mining Engineers of Turkey denounced “a series of negligence” that caused “a major environmental disaster”.
The Environment Ministry announced yesterday that it was taking measures to ‘prevent the flow of materials into the Euphrates’.
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Operating company Anagold said 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 risk regarding the waste disposal basin.
The mine, which employs 667 workers, was in the spotlight in 2022 following a cyanide salt leak, leading authorities to temporarily suspend operations.
It reopened after paying a fine, which had sparked strong opposition opposition.
