35 mln cubic meters of soil to be removed from Erzincan mine landslide

ERZİNCAN

Some 35 million cubic meters of soil will be displaced to reach nine missing miners in the landslide-hit gold mine in the eastern province of Erzincan amid the prosecutor’s office’s ongoing investigation.

Speaking to the press during his visit to the region, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya stated that nearly 2,700 people are working in the area, adding that initial assessments indicated that there is 35 million cubic meters of soil in the zone.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar stated that even if the miners are reached, the entire soil mass will still be removed from the area, addressing concerns about possible environmental damage due to the cyanide-tainted waste soil used in the gold extraction process.

The excavated soil will be relocated to a nearby former mining site. Bayraktar previously stated that there were approximately 400,000 trucks of soil in the disaster-stricken area.

Turkish manager released

Meanwhile, the foreign operating company's Turkish representative released under judicial control following a brief detention on Feb. 18. The detention of the top Turkish manager of Anagold came a day after license cancellations were issued by two ministries to the company.

While the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry suspended the company’s production activities, the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry revoked its environmental permit and license. The rationale behind these decisions pointed to the flow of processed waste soil towards a nearby stream and mining area following the landslide incident on Feb. 13.

Over the weekend, the Erzincan court ruled for the detention of six individuals, including a Canadian executive of the company.

In the meantime, authorities on Feb. 18 reported that during the rescue operations, some soil masses in the landslide area shifted once again, causing difficult challenges for rescue teams.

Furthermore, a panel of experts scrutinizing the site of the landslide issued a preliminary report, highlighting cracks formed at the location where waste soil from previous gold extraction activities had accumulated as the main cause of the disaster. The report explicitly underscored the insufficiency of measures taken to mitigate the risks posed by these cracks.