Turkish gold miners operate unhindered during attempted coup

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Turkey-focused miner Alacer Gold reported Sunday that the Çöpler mine was operating as normal and that there were no local disruptions in the wake of a military coup d'état attempt on the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The TSX- and ASX-listed company reported that, after it had initiated its contingency plan, all personnel had been accounted for and were safe.

The Çöpler mine is located in east-central Turkey, in the Erzincan province, about 1 130 km south-east of Istanbul, and 550 km east of Ankara, Turkey’s capital city.

Midtiered Alacer is using its 80% interest in the world-class Çöpler mine to increase investment in the country, having recently approved the construction of the $744-million Çöpler sulphide project. The first gold pour from the sulphide operation is expected in the third quarter of 2018 and the plant will achieve its initial design capacity of 1.9-million tonnes a year by the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, fellow Canadian gold producer Eldorado Gold, which operates two gold mines in Turkey, Kişladağ and Efemçukuru, confirmed to Mining Weekly Online that all of its employees were safe and accounted for.

"Both of our mines continue to operate unaffected," a spokesperson stated.

Together, Eldorado's Turkish mines produced more than 380 000 oz of gold in 2015.

SOURING POLITICAL OUTLOOK
The global economy faces more volatility in the months ahead, according to economic analyst Stratfor.

In its recently released ‘Third-Quarter Global Economic Forecast’, the geopolitical intelligence and advisory firm noted how growing European fragmentation following Brexit, Russian ambitions in the former Soviet sphere and central banks running out of room to manoeuvre on the economic front, will drive broader world developments in the current quarter.

"London is headed for the door, Paris and the big spenders of the Mediterranean belt are banding together, Warsaw and Budapest are pulling away and Berlin can't enforce the rules of a union that it is desperately trying to hold together," Stratfor VP of global analysis Reva Goujon stated.

He added that, while the cracks in Europe spread, Russia could potentially exploit the European crisis and the fight against Islamic State, in Syria, to try and extract more strategic concessions from Washington. Goujon further noted that Turkey was using the US-Russia dialogue to deepen its presence in northern Syria.