Turkey: Fertilizer producer finds 3.5M ounce of gold

By Deniz Cicek Palabiyik

ANKARA (AA) - Some 3.5 million ounce of gold was found in a mine site belonging to the fertilizer producer Gubretas in the Marmara region of Turkey, the head of firm revealed on Tuesday.

According to the current prices, the gold reserve's value is around $6 billion, Gubretas chairman Fahrettin Poyraz said told Anadolu Agency.

The land in the Bilecik province was allocated to a private firm Koza Altin, but the agreement was canceled due to failure to fulfill obligations, he recalled.

Koza Altin was seized by the Saving Deposits Insurance Fund as part of the fight against the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey.

As part of the gold researching process, Gubretas established a mining company, Maden AS.

Poyraz asserted that the new discovery is among top five gold mines globally.

The gold will be extracted by Maden AS within two years, he added.

Gubretas is a subsidiary company of Turkey's Agricultural Credit Cooperative.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun in Istanbul