GÜBRETAŞ Chairman of the Board of Directors, Fahrettin Poyraz, said regarding the detected 3.5 million ounce gold asset: "When we try to put it at today's prices, we are talking about a value of approximately 6 billion dollars."

Fahrettin Poyraz, General Manager of Turkish Agricultural Credit Cooperatives and Chairman of the Board of Directors of GÜBRETAŞ, stated that a gold resource of 3.5 million ounces was detected in the Söğüt gold field belonging to GÜBRETAŞ and said, "When we try to put it at today's prices, we are talking about a value of approximately 6 billion dollars." said.

Poyraz made an assessment to the AA correspondent about the latest situation in the gold mine field of Tarım Kredi subsidiary GÜBRETAŞ, located in Bilecik's Söğüt district.

Explaining that the field in question was given to Koza Altın company to be operated in 2008, but that a lawsuit was filed by GÜBRETAŞ for the cancellation of the contract after the company did not fulfill its obligations, Poyraz said that the lawsuits in question were concluded in December 2019, including the appeal stages, and the field there was delivered to GÜBRETAŞ with all its rights. He said the decision had been made.

Poyraz reminded that FETO's July 15 coup attempt took place and Koza company was transferred to SDIF, and said:

“As soon as the court stages were completed, we entered into dialogue with TMSF and Koza and completed the entire transfer process regarding the mining area. There have been drilling studies to determine the value of gold assets in the mining area from past to present. While the trials were ongoing, drilling activities continued partially. We also took over the technical documents and data regarding the drillings from Koza for a fee. We started to work on updating the report regarding the information we acquired with an internationally accredited company. “As of the end of November, this report was delivered to our institution.”

Stating that they are also working on how to manage the next process, Poyraz stated that they established GÜBRETAŞ Maden AŞ, which belongs to GÜBRETAŞ, in this process.

Poyraz pointed out that the presence in the mining area represents a serious value for the Turkish economy and GÜBRETAŞ and made the following evaluation:

“The report we submitted to the stock exchange revealed that there were approximately 3.5 million ounces of resources in the field. It is revealed that 1 million 920 thousand ounces of this is a definite gold reserve that is currently ready to be mined. In addition, it is determined that 1.6 million ounces will turn into a reserve of 83 percent as a resource. Taking this amount into account, we can talk about the presence of approximately 3.2 million ounces of gold in the Söğüt gold mine area. "When we try to put this in value at today's prices, we are talking about a value of around 6 billion dollars."

Emphasizing that this mine is among the few mines in the world, Poyraz said, “It has a gold value that is perhaps the first in Turkey and among the top 5 in the world. Considering that the world average is around 2-3 percent, the average rate of gold presence in 1 ton of soil pile here is 8.6 percent. This rate rises to 12-14 percent in some parts of the mining area. Drillings reveal this. This translates into lower operating costs.” he said.

“WE WILL RELEASE IT WITH OUR OWN FACILITIES AND TEAMS”

General Manager Poyraz stated that they are making serious preparations to bring this mine to the Turkish economy and said, "We could have given its operation to a different company or we could have partnered with another company, but by structuring the GÜBRETAŞ Maden AŞ company, we could use the power of GÜBRETAŞ and the support of Tarım Kredi to develop this mine using our own means and our own means." Our teams decided to extract it with our own investments and bring it to GÜBRETAŞ, Tarım Kredi and Turkish agriculture. The final decision we made is that we will do this ourselves, by organizing Maden AŞ to do this job directly, by equipping it technically and by supporting it financially, in cooperation with Tarım Kredi and GÜBRETAŞ, with national and local resources. We will bring the value we obtained from here to GÜBRETAŞ and bring it to Turkish agriculture and economy through renovation investments and new investments in the company's facilities. Our technical preparations and financing efforts are continuing rapidly, and we will bring the mine here to the Turkish economy within 2 years. “We aim to extract the first gold within 2 years and turn it into value in the Turkish economy.” said.

“WE SEE THIS AS A NATIONAL ISSUE”

Pointing out the importance of gold for the country's economies, Poyraz said:

“It is certain that the contribution of today's approximately 6 billion dollars of assets to the Turkish economy will be much higher than this. We see this as a national issue, a matter for our country. We know very well the sensitivity of our President regarding the national economy. As GÜBRETAŞ and Tarım Kredi, we will do whatever we can to bring this to the national economy with national means. We set a 2-year target for ourselves, and during this period we will start to bring this value to our economy. We will quickly complete the technical work and the official procedures related to it and move on to the investment process. We also appointed GÜBRETAŞ Deputy General Manager Mahmut Karaman as General Manager of Maden AŞ.”

Pointing out that the report prepared by an internationally accredited organization regarding the mine will provide significant opportunities for financing this investment, Poyraz said that there are organizations that want to work with them in the financing dimension.

Poyraz added that this investment will make a serious contribution to the economy and employment of Bilecik and Söğüt.

(This news is quoted from Anadolu Agency's news dated December 22, 2020.)