Mining company behind death of 9 workers in Turkey plans to resume operations

In a report by SSR Mining, a co-owner of the mine where the İliç mining disaster occurred and left nine miners trapped underground for months, it was indicated that work has been underway to reopen the mine and that discussions with authorities were ongoing.

Saturday November 09 2024 01:57 am

Duvar English

SSR Mining Company, co-owner of Anagold Mining, which operates the mine in Erzincan’s İliç district where nine workers were killed, has expressed in its third-quarter report a desire to continue operations in the disaster area.

The company, which operates in the United States, Turkey, Canada, and Argentina, extensively mentioned its activities at the Çöpler Gold Mine, where nine workers were trapped underground for months following a landslide due to negligence.

SSR Mining laid down four “key priorities” for the mining site: the recovery of the “missing colleagues,” containment of the incident and remediation of the site, the investigation into the root cause of the incident, and preparing for the restart of the Çöpler mine.

The company also stated that there has been no contamination despite many experts’ reports on the mining site, “Public statements from Turkish government officials continue to reiterate that there has been no recordable contamination to local soil, water or air in the sampling locations.”

In the mining site, a heap of earth known as a "leach pile" had shifted, burying workers under the soil, resulting in their deaths. The company faced accusations of overloading the leach heap beyond capacity and allowing workers to operate despite visible cracks in the ground.

The report stated that the leach pile, which was said to contain cyanide, would no longer be processed at the Çöpler site, and discussions with the government have been ongoing.

The company stated that it has so far relocated over 16 million tons (approximately 86%) of the shifted leach material to temporary storage sites.

“The Çöpler remediation and containment work is estimated to cost between $250 to $300 million and take a total of 24 to 36 months to complete. In the third quarter of 2024, $48.3 million was spent on remediation activities at Çöpler, bringing total remediation spend since April 1, 2024 to $103.3 million,” SSR Mining noted.

The report, which claimed the company bears no fault despite allegations of negligence, stated that multiple third-party observers have inspected the site at various times.

“To date, this review has not identified any material non-conformance with the construction or operation of the heap leach facility relative to the third-party engineered design parameters,” the report stated.

The company noted that work with authorities to reopen the mine has been ongoing, emphasizing close collaboration with relevant officials to secure the necessary permits for resumption.

“Once all necessary regulatory approvals, including the operating permits, are reinstated, it is anticipated that initial operations at Çöpler could restart within 20 days and would consist of processing a combination of stockpiled ore and ore mined from Çakmaktepe, while the remediation work continues,” it stated.

What happened?

On Feb. 13, 2024, a landslide occurred at the Çöpler Gold Mine in a cyanide heap leach deposit, burying nine workers under millions of cubic meters of soil. In the subsequent search efforts, the body of one worker was found on April 5, another on April 19, two on May 4, one on June 4, three on June 6, and the last on June 8.

Operations at the mine, which has faced criticism due to its cyanide-based mining activities, were halted. In two statements issued in October, the company announced ongoing efforts to reopen the mine.