Nine Trapped In Turkiye Gold Mine Landslide

2024-02-13 07:18:17

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP

Istanbul: Hundreds of Turkish rescuers on Tuesday searched through a cyanide-laced field for nine Gold mine workers who were swallowed by a massive landslide that rolled over their open pit.

Images from the scene showed the landslide sweeping across a valley and crashing into a road where some of the workers were travelling by vehicle.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said there was no news of nine out of 667 employees at the mine, which is in the remote Ilic district of the eastern Erzincan province.

"We installed our (rescue) vehicles, our generators, and our night lighting equipment," Yerlikaya told state-run TRT television. "We have only one wish: to be able to give good news to the families of these brothers."

Experts and local officials said the search was complicated by the presence in the ground of cyanide -- a highly toxic chemical compound used to extract gold from ore.

"Cyanide soil collapsed" at the site, Independent Mining Labour Union representative Basaran Aksu told Turkish media.

Aksu said specialist equipment would be needed in the search. "The work may take a very long time because of the cyanide field," which is reported to be one of Turkiye's largest.

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