© Reuters. A CCTV monitor reveals a landslide at an Anagold Mining operation in Ilic, Turkey February 13, 2024 on this display screen seize from a social media video. Mustafa Sarigul through X/through REUTERS
By Can Sezer and Ceyda Caglayan
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Rescue employees battled to search out 9 employees trapped beneath earth after a landslide at a gold mine in japanese Turkey on Wednesday, the inside minister mentioned, whereas state media mentioned 4 folks have been detained as an investigation acquired underway.
The landslide occurred on Tuesday afternoon within the Ilic district of Erzincan province. State broadcaster TRT Haber mentioned the mine’s area supervisor was among the many 4 folks detained.
Gold miner SSR Mining (NASDAQ:) on Tuesday suspended manufacturing on the mine after what it described as a “giant slip on the heap leach pad”. The incident sparked a plunge of greater than 50% in its Toronto-listed shares.
“Our search and rescue operations will proceed non-step day and evening,” mentioned Inside Minister Ali Yerlikaya . “Our hope is for excellent news and we’re working for that.”
Of the 9 lacking, 5 folks have been believed to be in a container hut, three in a car and one in a truck, he mentioned on the catastrophe web site. Some 1,700 personnel have been concerned within the emergency operation, together with 339 search and rescue employees.
The mine is operated by Anagold Madencilik and owned by Turkey-based Calik Holding and Denver, Colorado-based SSR Mining, which is listed in Toronto and New York.
Safety footage confirmed an enormous mound of soil, which authorities mentioned had been processed for gold and piled on the hills, quickly crumble and circulate into the valley in a deluge of earth and rocks, sending clouds of mud into the air.
Yerlikaya mentioned some 200 metres of a hillside slid within the incident. Preliminary findings recommend the amount of the landslide was 10 million cubic metres of earth that moved 800 metres at a velocity of 10 metres per second, he mentioned.
The earth slid to inside a number of kilometres of the Euphrates river and there have been issues over the soil containing cyanide, given leach mining is carried out there.
Nonetheless, the working firm Anagold mentioned samples had been taken from streams and rivers within the space and no air pollution has been detected, with no cyanide circulate into the river and no hazard concerning its waste storage pool.
The mine produced 56,768 ounces of gold within the third-quarter of final yr, and is SSR’s second-largest producing gold mine, working since 2010. The inventory slide worn out about C$1.4 billion ($1.03 billion) from the corporate’s market worth.
($1 = 1.3568 Canadian {dollars})
(This story has been corrected to repair the main points on possession of the mine in paragraph 6)