At the beginning of Q208, Canadian company Nuinsco Resources said it had begun test drilling at its Berta copper-gold project in north-eastern Turkey, together with its 50% joint venture partner Xstrata Copper. Drilling in 2007 had yielded encouraging results suggesting 0.28% copper ore grade and 0.07gram/tonne of gold. ‘Berta has tremendously exciting geology and the drill results from last year
highlight the enormous potential of this essentially unexplored project’ said Nuinsco president Paul Jones. Berta is 50km south of the Black Sea, within the Tethyan-Eurasian Metalogenic Belt, which sweeps through various countries and contains rich ore deposits including Iran’s Sarcesmeh Mine, considered one of the world’s largest copper deposits, with an estimated 1.2bn tonnes graded at 1% copper.
Turkey is home to 2.5% of the world’s industrial mineral resources and produces around 60 different metals and minerals. Surprisingly, mining activity generates only about 1.5% of the Turkish GDP. Turkey’s chief mineral products comprise borax ores, bentonite, perlite and some metallic ores, such as iron, bauxite, chromite and gold. A reasonable level of coal production is reported. In the late 1990s Turkish mineral exports dipped severely as a result of the East Asian Crisis, which affected the country’s chief trading partners. Mining exports have, however, shown an uptrend of late. Exports of non-ferrous metals and metalliferous ores increased by 38% and 37% year-on-year (y-o-y), respectively, in 2005. With an annual capacity of 23mn tonnes, Turkey’s iron and steel industry is ranked 12th in the world.
Turkey possesses 62% of global borax reserves. Exports of natural stones such as marble have also increased substantially in recent times, reaching a value of US$800mn in 2005. Other significant mining exports include magnesite, copper, zinc ores and feldspar. Recent exploration activity has also indicated increased reserves of gold and coal.
In line with its aim of full EU membership and further integration with the global economy, Turkey has amended its principal mining legislation. This has eased the licensing procedures and done away with unnecessary bureaucratic controls. Environmental assessment guidelines and licence fees have also been changed to attract foreign investment. Though this has been largely accepted as a step in the right direction by investors the world over, environmental groups and local investors came out strongly against some of the suggested reforms. As a part of its reform agenda, the government continues to reduce its ownership in state-owned mining operators, the latest move being the privatisation of the nation’s largest steel company.
Industry Forecast
BMI forecasts an average annual growth rate of 6.5% for the Turkish mining industry over 2008-2012. We expect the industry to reach a value of US$21bn by 2012, contributing around 1.5% to the nation’s GDP.
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