Gold mine disaster that occurred in plain sight as a result of negligence swallowed 9 Turkish miners

A huge landslide hit a gold mine in eastern Turkey on Tuesday, trapping at least nine workers underground, officials said.

The landslide at the Copler mine happened at 2:30 p.m. near the town of Ilic in Turkey’s mountainous Erzincan province. Footage seemingly shot by a nearby worker showed a massive wave of earth rushing down a gully, engulfing everything in its path.

Meanwhile a Turkish anti-mine advocate Sedat Cezayirlioğlu on Feb. 14 was detained over his remarks on the landslide disaster at the Çöpler gold mine in Turkey’s eastern Erzincan province, which led to the entrapment of at least nine workers and a possible cyanide leakage.

Born in Erzincan’s İliç district, Cezayirlioğlu has been advocating against the gold mine in the district, where the disaster happened.

After the Feb. 13 disaster at the Çöpler gold mine, Cezayirlioğlu said in a video that “(It’s) the world’s 3rd largest gold mine. The world’s biggest disaster is happening in the Çöpler gold mine. The world’s biggest disaster, not Turkey’s, has occurred.”

Experts and opposition had been warning about the dangers of the mine since its foundation in 2009. In June 2022, a pipe containing cyanide also burst in the mine, leading to the discharge of waste into the Euphrates River. However, the mine site was approved to be expanded by the Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Ministry after the leakage.