Turkey: Eurogold versus Bergama -Update

Sat Sep 20 10:35:15 BST 1997

Bomb Explosion Hits Eurogold Office in TR

IZMIR, Turkey, Sept 19 (Reuter) - A small bomb exploded on Friday at
the Turkih office of a foreign gold mining company that is fighting
protests over its plans to use cyanide in gold extraction in western
Turkey.

"A bomb exploded in front of Eurogold's office at 06:25 (0325 GMT)," a
police official told Reuters. There were no injuries in the blast in
the Aegean coast city of Izmir.

Eurogold said the blast would not affect its plans to have a mine near
the town of Bergama, also in the Aegean region, up and running by
November.

"This will not change in any way our wish to start production before
the end of '97 on a model mine which is an investment considered by
international communities as a test for future investments in Turkey,"
company managing director Jack Testard told Reuters.

Eurogold is a $46 million joint venture between Canada's Inmet and
France's La Source, partly owned by Normandy Mining of Australia.

The start-up of operations at the Bergama mine has been hindered by
angry local protests and lengthy court cases over the company's
cyanide-leaching techniques.

In July, a Turkish government minister said she had asked Eurogold to
postpone operations until a court decided whether using cyanide would
be harmful to local people.

But the company, which is due to start production in November, says it
has the legal right to go ahead and that it was never formally
notified of any government decision to put off operations.

Eurogold denies that cyanide would damage the health of villagers
living near the mine. Local people have travelled to Megaköy and
Ankara to stage high-profile demonstrations against the mine.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
The Struggle for justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan
http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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