Cem ŞİMŞEK
The location is Çöpler gold mine in İliç district of Erzincan in eastern Turkey, the date is 13 February 2024, 14.28 hours... A cave-in occurred in the leach pile, where the cyanide tailings remaining after the gold separation process rose like a mountain. The first information that came out after the collapse was that it was a disaster. As we dug deeper, what came out of the ground revealed the local partners of the international mining monopoly who had been orchestrating the disaster step by step.
The first images from the scene were of a collapsing mountain, resembling a landslide. From the first moment, the agency news was labelled "landslide". But this was neither a natural disaster nor a landslide. The cyanide mine collapsed and 9 miners were buried under 10 million cubic metres of earth.
One of the miners who was buried alive said in a promotional film made in 2022 by the company, which began to gain influence in the region in 2008 by distributing money to the people of the district, "20 years ago they said people would be poisoned, but no one was poisoned or died. If that had been the case, would I have sent my brother there?" said the brother of a resident of İliç...
Hours after the collapse, search and rescue teams from neighbouring provinces were sent to the area. Government spokesmen repeatedly appeared in front of the cameras to give information. In the hours that followed, it was announced that around 400 people had been sent to the region and that a "mobilisation" was underway to reach the workers trapped under the rust. The first photos of the search operations showed that the teams were not even given masks or gloves as they ploughed through the cyanide-soaked soil with picks and shovels.
Those reporting from the area described a strong smell of bitter almonds. Speaking to our newspaper, public health specialist Cavit Işık Yavuz said: "Some of the cyanide evaporates as hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide can cause a smell similar to the smell of bitter almonds in the air. This smell means that the cyanide is spreading". Yavuz said that cyanide, which is passed on to people through inhalation and through food grown in the soils it reaches, causes serious illnesses.
A mine worker we reached in the first hours of the collapse said that cracks and fissures had appeared in the leach heap during the day, but no precautions had been taken: "The site should have been evacuated, but work continued." The mine worker's testimony was corroborated by other witnesses from the area. "This disaster was deliberate," the worker said, recalling that the previous year there had been a rupture in the leach pile and that workers who complained about the lack of safety at work had been threatened with dismissal, despite the fact that a group of workers had recently changed union.
In addition, the professional organisations that commented on the disaster recalled that they had repeatedly warned about the mine and filed lawsuits, but that all warnings had been ignored.
The lawsuits filed by local people and professional organisations to overturn the positive EIA decision for the gold mine, which began operations in 2010, claimed that the EIA report did not fully assess the mine's environmental impact, that it would negatively affect the region's agriculture and livestock, that the chemicals used in the mine would affect the region's drinking water, and that it would harm human health. However, the court dismissed the case on the basis of an expert report written in the company's favour. The 6th Chamber of the Council of State, which heard the appeal, ruled that the decision was in accordance with the law and ignored the disaster the mine would cause.
The first risk to emerge from the collapse of the mine, which sits on the banks of the Euphrates River, was that cyanide leachate would end up in the water. Our reporter Özer Akdemir was the first to raise this risk 11 years ago. Cemalettin Küçük, a member of the board of directors of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TMMOB), who was a guest on the Çepeçevre Yaşam programme presented by Akdemir at the time, pointed to the shifts in the heaps of rust visible even then in photographs taken from a hill overlooking the cyanide gold operation, and said that this could lead to a major disaster in the future.
The first cyanide leak at the mine occurred on 21 June 2021. The Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change imposed a fine of 16 million 441 thousand TL on the company and suspended the mine's activities after the sulphuric acid and cyanide leaked into the waters of the Euphrates. However, before the dust had settled, the mine resumed operations three months later, as if to make up for the lost three months. The company applied for a capacity increase on 15 June 2023. The Erzincan Governor's Office ignored the reactions to the capacity increase application and within two months issued an "EIA is not required" decision for the capacity increase. This decision added 5.83 hectares of land to the 1,746 hectares of the mining area. The mining monopoly, which did not even have to wait for the outcome of the legal appeals against the decision, which was made during the term of Murat Kurum, the current AKP mayoral candidate of IBB, as Minister of Environment and Urbanisation, started the capacity increase.
In the same year, a detail in SSR Mining's balance sheet showed that the government's favour to the company was not limited to the "capacity increase". In fact, despite the 16.4 million lira fine imposed on the company following the leak, 209 million lira of tax debt was cancelled with a single stroke of the pen.
Of course, political support for the mining company does not stop there. The mining company's main shareholder, Canadian company SSR Mining, is expected to earn around $1.5 billion in revenues and $334.6 million in profits from the İliç mine between 2020 and 2023. The junior partner, Çalık Holding, already tops the list of capital groups known for their ties to the AKP. Çalık Holding, whose "star shone" during the AKP rule, received a significant capital transfer through privatisations, TOKİ tenders, foreign contracts and "favourable" credit facilities. In a short period of time, the holding company grew rapidly in many sectors, from energy to telecommunications, from finance to textiles, from construction to media. Between 2012 and 2020, the holding increased its equity by about nine times. President Erdoğan's son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, was appointed general manager of the holding company in 2007.
Following his appointment, all bids were withdrawn in the Sabah-ATV tender, which was seized by the SDIF and put up for sale; the winner was the holding company, of which Albayrak was the general manager.
The goal of SSR, the mining monopoly that buries workers alive in the ground, is to increase gold production by 100 per cent by 2027. As part of this target, the mining monopoly wants to move its production from Argentina to Artvin.
The information that was revealed on the first day showed the international and local actors of the exploitation order that was established on the underground resources and labour in the region, the cooperation between the actors and the process that led to the massacre step by step.
In the following days, the narratives of the people of the region about İliç revealed the alliance established in the triangle of "capital-politics and local bureaucracy" and the picture of "unarmed occupation" for the region. The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are afraid of the mining company and the administration that collaborates with it, said that the company, which entered the region by "handing out money", bought villages and took control of the district's economy. One shopkeeper explained the company's dominance in the district as follows: "The company has the information of the whole region, house by house, name by name. When they arrived, they made an 'analysis study' of everyone, from the shepherd to the mayor".
The municipal administration and the representatives of the central administration are almost "representatives of the company". Residents of İliç say that the recruitment of workers for the mine is under the supervision of İliç Mayor Mustafa Gürbüz, and that former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım is protecting the company. "My son is a mining engineer, but I couldn't get him a job. Everything is done with political favouritism," says one citizen.
The company's hegemony is not limited to the families whose livelihoods depend on the mine. After the mine destroyed agricultural livelihoods in the region, the company set up a 'social development fund'. Families who are struggling to make a living are also made dependent on the company with money distributed from this fund.
As part of the investigation into the collapse, 8 mine officials were arrested. After questioning, 6 of the 8 were taken to court and 6 of them were arrested. In the preliminary expert report released the same day, the main company was found to be "secondarily at fault" for failing to fulfil its duty of supervision. The Deputy Director of Operations, the Process Oxide Manager, the Oxide Operations Chief Engineer, the Oxide Operations Engineer and the Piping Supervisor were found to be primarily at fault. The company's political and administrative staff were not even mentioned in the report.
Anagold, which has been processing gold with cyanide in the region since 2010, has extracted 85 tonnes of gold in 14 years. The company entered the region with a target of 100 tonnes and is expected to extract all of its gold reserves within a few years and then begin mining at Artvin, its new target. When the company leaves Iliç, it will leave behind a huge natural disaster, unemployment and poverty.
The toxic regime established in İliç is neither the first nor the only one. There are 21 mining sites in Turkey that produce gold and silver using the cyanide separation technique. These mines are located in Çanakkale, Balıkesir, İzmir, Kütahya, Uşak, Manisa, Eskişehir, Konya, Niğde, Kayseri, Sivas, Erzincan, Gümüşhane and Ordu.
A massacre like İliç could happen at any moment in these mining areas. The government also patronises and encourages this poisonous system. During the AKP period, the number of active mining licences increased to an average of 21,000 per year. Mehmet Torun, former president of the Chamber of Mining Engineers, says: "The number of licences, which was around 2,000 from the foundation of the Republic until 2002, when the AKP period began, increased to a total of 300,000 during the AKP period. According to the Investment Office of the Presidency, the number of international mining companies in Turkey has increased from 138 in 2004 to 773.
The mining reports published by the TEMA Foundation are striking because they show the extent of the looting during the AKP years. According to the 2021 reports, Afyon, Artvin, Bayburt, Erzincan-Dersim, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Giresun, Gümüşhane, Rize, Trabzon, Maraş, Karaman, Kütahya, Muğla, Ordu, Siirt, Şırnak, Batman, Sivas, Tekirdağ, Kırklareli, Tokat, Uşak, Zonguldak, Bartın, the Kaz Mountains and their surroundings were largely opened up to mining exploitation. 92 per cent of Kütahya, 79 per cent of the Kaz Mountains, 74 per cent of Ordu, 71 per cent of Artvin, 59 per cent of Muğla and 52 per cent of the Erzincan-Dersim region have been licensed for mining. Active mining is taking place in a significant part of these areas. The remaining areas will be tendered in the coming period. Forests, pastures, agricultural land, natural and historical reserves are also included in the areas granted mining licences.
The omnibus law, which was to be discussed in the general assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly last week and which includes regulations on energy laws, was delayed in İliç. Due to the sensitivity of the mining industry caused by the disaster, the AKP and other political parties with parliamentary groups postponed the negotiations on the omnibus bill.
The omnibus law promises a thornless rose garden for the mining monopolies. If the bill becomes law, no report will be required to operate a mine. Companies will be allowed multiple resource permits and production without a licence. The first clear position on the bill came from Labour Party (EMEP) MP's. Labour Party MP İskender Bayhan said: "This is a law carefully prepared for the monopolies operating in the mining and natural gas sectors and for the countries that want to plunder our natural resources under the masks of energy localisation, green transformation, job-based growth and renewable energy. The AKP government wants to hand over the lands, mountains, forests and lakes of the country again to the needs of the national and international capital with special "embroidered" regulations. The whole country will be turned into a building site. We say no to the omnibus law, which has no other result than the stability of labour murders in the mines, the exploitation of cheap labour and the plundering of nature, so that there will be no new İliçs".
Ceren Sözeri
Yusuf Karadaş
Aras Coşkuntuncel