'Race against time' as search continues for missing Turkish miners

Attempts are continuing to recover nine workers believed buried after a landslide at a Turkish mine. 

Hundreds of police, military, mine rescuers and volunteers are working at the site at the Copler gold mine in Türkiye's eastern Erzincan province.

The site's owners have described a large slip" on the land bank where the mined earth and ore is processed. 

Five of the missing men were believed to have been in a container hut at the time of the incident, with three in a vehicle and one further person inside a truck. 

Production has been halted amid reports that four employees, including the operation's field manager, have been taken into custody.

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Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said "The rescue operation continues uninterrupted," as hopes fade of finding the men alive. Fears are growing that cyanide and other chemicals used in the mining process are hampering the search and rescue work. 

Independent Mining Labor Union representative Basaran Aksu said "If a heavy construction machine entered the area, it would sink… it would create a chemical suffocation effect. This situation greatly reduces the chances of survival of those trapped."

Chemical effluents

The Copler gold mine, which employs 667 staff, is majority owned by the Colorado based SSR Mining through the private group Anagold. It has been operating in the region for over a decade. The site closed briefly in 2022 after it was found to be leaking chemical effluents in the nearby Euphrates river. It reopened after paying a $540,000 fine, the maximum sum under the law.  

Türkiye's Union of Chambers of Engineers and Architects has called on the government to shut down the mine "immediately," saying previous warnings about its safety record have been ignored. 

Türkiye's environment ministry says streams running from the site to the Euphrates have been closed as a precaution and there is no evidence of leakages so far in the Euphrates, western Asia's longest river. 

But Meral Aksener, leader of the opposition IYI Party said "The government has preferred to side with mine owners, not with citizens." 

Shares in SSR Mining have continued to fall on Wednesday after more than halving in the previous day's trade on the Nasdaq exchange. "Our efforts right now continue to focus on locating our colleagues who are missing and ensuring that all our people are accounted for and safe," the firm said in a statement.

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