SSR Mining Suspends Dividend, Retracts Guidance As 9 Workers Remain Missing In Turkey Gold Mine Landslide
Precious metals producer SSR Mining (NASDAQ:SSRM) on Tuesday retracted guidance, suspended dividend payments and stopped its share buyback plans two weeks after a landslide at its gold mine in Turkey left nine miners missing.
Efforts to locate the missing workers have resumed after being suspended because of stability concerns, and six mine employees have been detained and are facing charges, SSR executive chairman Rod Antal said in a conference call Tuesday afternoon.
Mining operations were suspended at SSR’s 80%-owned Copler mine in eastern Turkey on Feb. 13 after tons of material slid down the side of a huge pile of ore where the company uses cyanide to extract gold.
Five days later, the company said authorities revoked the mine’s environmental permit. The Turkish government has said its soil, water and air testing hasn’t revealed any contamination in the area, which is near the Euphrates River.
“The company is not, at this time, able to estimate or predict when it will resume operations at Copler,” SSR said in a statement Tuesday.
Copler is owned and operated by Turkey-based Anagold Mining, and SSR Mining …
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