Search and rescue operations are underway to reach nine workers trapped underground after landslide hit a dump-leaching area of a gold mine in eastern Türkiye on Tuesday.
A large number of search and rescue teams were dispatched to the Ilic district of Erzincan Province after the Copler gold mine collapsed at 2:28 p.m. local time (1128 GMT), Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters late Tuesday.
Nine workers trapped under the landslide are beneath a volume of 10 million cubic meters involving a mound of soil extracted from the mine, he said, adding that a total of 827 personnel were taking part in search and rescue work.
The movement of the landslide occurred along a slope with an approximate height of 200 meters, Yerlikaya said.
The total volume of the sliding mass is currently estimated to be 10 million cubic meters, and it is anticipated that the mass has moved approximately 800 meters, with an average speed of 10 meters per second, the minister said.
Former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters on Tuesday that the sliding area has spread over an area of 300 acres.
The Copler mine is a world-class epithermal gold-silver-copper deposit. Discovered in 1999, the mine poured its first gold in 2010. ■
