Grave allegation: Mining company distributed money to the public

Speaking as a guest on TELE1 Main News, CHP Deputy Chairman and Zonguldak Deputy Deniz Yavuzyılmaz said that in 2016, the mining company gave 130 thousand liras each to the local people in the region and requested a commitment stating, "I will not make any judicial or administrative applications."

Yavuzyılmaz said, "There was a major landslide at the open-pit mine in the region. The Governor's Office stated that 9 workers were trapped under the soil, but according to information coming from the region, this number may increase. Our Erzincan Deputy Mustafa Sarıgül is currently in the region. We are also on our way with Gamze Taşçıer and Baran Bozoğlu, who also holds high-level positions on environmental issues."

Reminding that numerous warnings had been made regarding the mine, Yavuzyılmaz stated, "Unfortunately, the disaster said 'I am coming' right before our eyes. It is a mine where warnings were made repeatedly and where our deputies conducted inspections and saw the lack of oversight on-site. 80 percent of this Anagold Madencilik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., which operates this mine, belongs to a Canada-based mining company, and 20 percent belongs to Lidya Madencilik, that is, the Çalık Group."

Touching upon the cyanide leak that occurred previously, Deniz Yavuzyılmaz said the following:

"Environmental disasters have occurred in this region before. The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change stopped gold mining activities here on June 27, 2022, with our pressure as well. This mining operation has been continuously expanded two and a half times since 2010. It went through the EIA process many times, and the company chose a path for itself and tried to take away the rights of the villagers in the region to file lawsuits and object by providing them with financial aid. In a protocol prepared in 2016, the company gave money to our citizens here under the name of 130 thousand TL in aid each and requested a commitment that they would not make any judicial or administrative applications for all mining activities. In other words, it tried to cover up all irregularities by creating an asymmetric pressure with financial power."

News Source: 12punto