Gold miner SSR Mining on Tuesday saw its Toronto-listed shares plunge more than 50% after it suspended production at a mine in eastern Türkiye after a massive landslide, which left at least nine miners missing.
The precious metals producer said in a regulatory filing that operations were suspended as a result of a “large slip on the heap leach pad.”
The Çöpler mine in the town of Iliç in the mountainous Erzincan province is operated by Lidya Madencilik and owned by Türkiye-based Çalık Holding and Denver, Colorado-based SSR Mining.
The mine produced 56,768 ounces of gold in the third quarter of last year, and is SSR’s second-largest producing gold mine, operating since 2010.
The stock slide wiped out about CA$1.4 billion ($1.03 billion) from the company’s market value.
Security footage showed a giant mound of soil, which authorities said had been processed for gold and piled on the hills, rapidly crumbling and flowing into the valley in a deluge of earth and rocks, sending clouds of dust into the air.
The Urbanization, Environment and Climate Change Ministry said in a statement that a stream leading to the Euphrates was closed to prevent water pollution. Erzincan Governor Hamza Aydoğlu also said there was no leakage into the waterway.
Some 800 search and rescue personnel, including police and military teams, mine rescuers and volunteers, were deployed to find the mine workers, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said early Wednesday.
Other workers at the mine have also joined the efforts to rescue their colleagues, while families of the missing waited at an area close to the mine for news of their loved ones.
“In order to closely coordinate the rescue work, I will interrupt my international program with our president and move to the region as of tonight,” Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in a posting on X, formerly Twitter.
The government said it has launched an investigation into the incident.
