Construction work resumes at mine as protests end

After two days of protest, construction work resumed on Wednesday at a copper mine in the northeastern province of Artvin.

A privately-owned mine near Cerattepe, an area with a lush landscape, has been at the heart of controversy. Environmental activists claimed the planned mine would harm the environment, because the construction of roads required the destruction of local forests. Protests at the site over the past two days deteriorated into riots, as large crowds attempted to block the road to the site with vehicles and were confronted by riot police.

When the government promised that the mining activities would not affect the environment, protesters left the area and decided to take the case to the court and staged a sit-in outside Artvin's governorate late on Wednesday.

Bulldozers arrived at the site yesterday to prepare the ground for construction, while local gendarmerie took security measures to prevent further riots. Security forces detained 11 people following the riots and all were released within hours.

Artvin is located in Turkey's Black Sea region and known for rich copper reserves. Veysel Eroğlu, the minister of Forestry and Water Affairs, had defended giving the company permission to mine and promised the public that it wouldn't harm the environment in any way and that the investment was needed to extract the rich resources in the region.

Eroğlu, along with Environment and Urban Development Minister Fatma Güldemet Sarı, held a joint press conference on Wednesday. Eroğlu said the ministry had taken all necessary measures to safeguard the environmental impact of the project, while Sarı said the copper would be extracted underground and no new roads would be built for transportation of copper from the mine, downplaying concerns that trees in the area would be chopped to build roads.

Both ministers said the mining was given the green light only after a lengthy and detailed process to assess its environmental impact, and if any trees were cut down, the companies were obliged to plant three times as many trees. The mining company will not be allowed to run a copper enrichment facility at the site, and has been instructed to establish a pulley system to transport the extracted copper instead of trucks, to minimize the damage to the environment.