At least nine people have been left trapped this Tuesday in a gold mine in the Turkish province of Erzincan, after a landslide that also threatens to cause an ecological disaster due to the probable release of toxic substances towards the Euphrates River, according to the Turkish press.

The Minister of the Interior, Ali Yerlikaya, has confirmed that the Presidency of Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) has mobilized a total of 400 rescuers for search efforts of the miners. For his part, the governor of Erzincan, Hamza Aydogdu, has stressed that “the important thing now is to quickly reach the citizens who have been trapped and get them out safely,” according to the Anatolia news agency.

The landslide occurred in an open pit mine near the Bagistas reservoir, about 90 kilometers from the city of Erzincan, in eastern Turkey. “There are buried mine workers”The governor confirmed to the ‘NTV’ channel, without detailing how many, while the mayor of Erzincan, Bekir Aksun, stated that “at least nine workers” had been trapped.

A video broadcast by the aforementioned network shows a huge mass of land falling off a hill and then it moves rapidly in a liquid state through a narrow valley.

The company that manages the mine, Anagold, has indicated in a statement that it is working to minimize the effects of this “painful” incident, according to the news portal ‘Hurriyet Daily News’. Furthermore, he has specified that the landslide occurred in a space where gold-bearing minerals are accumulated in the open air and subjected to a cyanide bath to separate the gold from the stone.

The company, 80% owned by the multinational SSR Mining, assures that it is doing everything possible for a rapid rescue intervention, without specifying a possible number of victims or environmental consequences. The mine has been operating since 2010 and according to SSR Mining it has reserves of 3.2 million ounces of gold.

The Minister of Justice, Yilmaz Tunc, has announced the opening of a judicial investigation. The Erzincan mine, where more than 600 people work, already suffered a cyanide leak in 2022, after which its activities were briefly paralyzed.