The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
At about 2 pm local time on 13 February 2024, a large landslide struck the Çöpler Mine in Erzincan Province, eastern Turkey. The landslide was caught on a remarkable video that has been posted widely on social media, including Youtube:-
According to mining.com, the Anagold mining operation at Çöpler Mine “is operated by Lidya Madencilik and owned by Turkey-based Calik Holding and Denver, Colorado-based SSR Mining, which is listed in Toronto and the Australian stock exchange.” The value of shares in SSR Mining lost half their value yesterday in the aftermath of the landslide.
There is little technical information about the landslide at Çöpler Mine at present, although it is clear that this was a very large failure. The mine operators have reported that the landslide occurred in the “heap leaching area” (there is a Wikipedia page about heap leaching). There is no indication of the trigger of the landslide. The failure itself was a flowslide, attaining a high velocity, and it was strongly retrogressive, with continuous failure from the source area for 30 seconds or more.
This still from the video shows the early part of the landslide sequence, with the main failure from the source area underway, and the runout front starting to develop:-
Note that the landslide generated significant amounts of dust, which implies that it might have been comparatively dry at the time of failure.
There is a technical report about the mine online, which says the following about the heap leaching plan (page 250 of the report):
“15.9.1 Heap Leach Pad Development
The heap leach facility pad development is in six phases, and is in the same geographical area, adjacent to the Çöpler open pit as shown on Figure 13.8. The heap leach phases 1 to 4 are completed.
The remaining phases of pad development 5 and 6 are yet to be constructed and will have a combined capacity of approximately 20 Mt.
The phase 5 (15 Mt capacity) was approved for pad construction in November 2021.
The phase 6 (5 Mt capacity) sits above phase 4B and 5 and will be the last to be constructed and stacked. Approvals and construction will be scheduled well in advance of being required for ore stacking and leaching.“
This implies that the location of the landslide might be [39.4162, 38.5313], but I have low confidence in this position.
There are two immediate concerns at the Çöpler Mine site. The first, and most pressing, is that nine miners are reported to be missing. It is not clear whether these were individuals working underground in a mine working whose entrance has now been blocked, or they were working on the surface of the area impacted by the landslide. If the latter then the prospects are bleak.
Second, there is real concern that the mine waste is contaminated with cyanide, which now has the prospect of leaching into the drainage system. This is a potential environmental disaster, so rapid action is needed to contain the waste.
I have written on so many occasions about the unacceptable failure rate of mine storage piles. The industry is making some progress, but these events just keep occurring. It is simply not acceptable.
