Cyanide Gold Mine Closed

The Canadian Eldorado Gold-Tüprag company has been prevented from further extracting gold with cyanide by the governor's office of Usak province, in western Turkey.

Possibility of deception  

However, the Inay Conscientious Movement speaker Muammer Sakaryali said: 

"We know that the company will claim to make changes in its Environmental Effects Evaluation (EEE) and to take precautions in order to get permission to reopen. But our waters are drying up and our people are poisoned."    He called such attemts a "deception of the state council" and added that this "game" had been played in Bergama, where there was another mine.  

Environment needs to be regenerated   According to villagers in Inay, it is not enough to seal up the entrance of the mine. The area also needs to be regenerated to return to the state of 2003.

"Just as they brought thousands of tons of cyanide, they need to take them away again. They must  pay compensation to repair the damaged fauna and flora of Kisladag. The wells that were opened to supply the mine with water need to be cemented closed by the Usak governor's office or the State Water Works (DSI). 

Inay villagers are calling environmentalists from all over Turkey to the village on 2 September in order to discuss the process.  

What happened? 

The official opening of the mine took place in July 2006. The mine was opened by Hilmi Güler, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. Two weeks before the opening, 1,800 people in Esme had been poisoned by hydrogen cyanide coming from the mine.   

According to Sakaryali, on 9 July this year,  the 6th chamber of the State Council stopped the positive report which the Ministry of Environment and Forests had given about the EEE of the mine and argued that there was a danger of irrepairable damage.   

On 30 July, Inay villagers had recorded the cases of poisoning and on 14 August had demanded of the Usak governor to "obey the laws and close the mine".   Thirty days after the decree, on 17 August, the Kisladag gold mine was sealed by the Usak governor's office. Workers at the mine have been given indeterminate unpaid leave. (GG/AG)