Gold mine disaster in Turkey
At least nine miners were trapped in a gold mine after a landslide near the eastern Anatolian town of Erzincan in Turkey last week, and have still not been rescued. Gold mined there is washed out of the rock using a cyanide solution, and there is now a risk of water contamination in the region. The incident has triggered outrage in the national press.
Human lives are worth little here
This tragedy is no exception in Turkey, Karar laments:
“Mining accidents, helplessness against floods and disasters, train accidents, never-ending industrial accidents and ships that cannot be rescued. ... The loss of people's lives that results clearly demonstrates the carelessness, inadequacy and lacking technical equipment of the state. Such incidents can occur in any country, but not all at once. Turkey experiences them all and is losing people as a result. ... There is a sinister chain of flawed installations, lacking supervision, ignored mistakes and a fundamental lack of respect for human life that cannot be broken.”
Questionable practices by the mine operator
The gold mine operator Anagold Madencilik is 80 percent owned by the Canadian company SSR Mining and 20 percent by the Turkish government-affiliated Çalık Holding. T24 warns:
“Although arrests and detentions have been made as part of the judicial investigation into the Anagold mine disaster in İliç, the issue of how to hold the company to account for practices that disregard human life during the mining process remains important. Just like the issue of how it can be held to account for the written documents signed by the villagers waiving their rights in exchange for 130,000 TL [approx. 3,900 euros] (which is not legally valid) and the fact that the eleven village leaders were taken on trips abroad by the company.”