Villagers Battle Turkish Gold Mine

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <ozgurluk at xs4all.nl>

Villagers Battle Turkish Gold Mine 

By SELCAN HACAOGLU 
Associated Press Writer 
Wednesday, April 16, 1997 10:53 am EDT 

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish villagers are banding together with
environmentalists and European politicians to try to block the opening
of the country's first gold mine on the site where an ancient civilization
once flourished. 

The conflict in Bergama -- a western town still dotted with marble
columns and theaters built by the ancient Greeks -- is attracting
national attention in Turkey, where environmental consciousness is still
relatively low. 

Bergama residents fear the mining venture by a French-based
company, Eurogold, will harm the environment by using cyanide to
separate the gold from other minerals, while offering little or not benefit
to local villagers. 

``They can't bury us here with cyanide,'' said Gulufem Eftal, a resident of
Narlica, one of eight villages surrounding the area where geologists say
24 tons of gold reserves lie in subterranean veins. ``We will fight to the
end.'' 

In January, the villages' 3,000 residents unanimously vetoed the use of
cyanide in a referendum. They fear the deadly chemical could seep out
of the waste pool being dug to hold it, or that the container might be
ruptured by an earthquake in the tremor-prone region. 

``Who can guarantee that the cyanide-filled pool will never crack and
release the deadly poison into the soil?'' Nail Cetin of the Bergama
municipality said today. 

Although the referendum is not legally binding, Bergama's Mayor Sefa
Taskin expects the European Parliament to issue a warning to the
Turkish government against operating the gold mine. 

Taskin lobbied against it at the European Parliament earlier this year in
alliance with the Green Party. A lawsuit brought in 1993 by villagers
against Eurogold is still pending. 

The Turkish government has issued Eurogold permits to begin mining,
and the target start-up date is November. Eurogold spokesman Hayri
Ogut said it will earn Turkey $40 million a year and create 238 jobs. 

Eurogold has already begun digging a mine pit, boring a wide
underground passage and excavating the waste pool that will store the
cyanide. 

The company insists every safety precaution is being implemented, and
local residents are wildly exaggerating risks. 

``Even if a major earthquake occurred no hazardous solution would
spread,'' company spokesman Ogut said. 

But locals are far from convinced. 

``I want my children to grow and live here without facing any danger,''
said Neslihan Gul, 24, a mother of two. ``This is our soil and I want the
company to go.'' 

Residents also worry about the mine's impact on the tens of thousands
of tourists that visit Bergama's ancient sites each year, and are its main
source of income. 

          © Copyright 1997 The Associated Press-text follows this line--

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