Turkey’s mining industry, ranked 10th in the world, is flourishing on the strength of its mineral resources

CDE has recently extended its operations in Turkey by appointing Doğan Ozel, the new Business Development Manager for the region. Doğan brings a wealth of knowledge to CDE, having spent over 6 years working in the Turkish market where he has been involved in several large projects for crushing, screening, washing, and water treatment plants. We recently caught up with Dogan to gather his thoughts on the growing mining market in Turkey.

Despite the economic crisis that has hit its sand and aggregates sector, Turkey’s mining industry, ranked 10th in the world, is flourishing on the strength of its mineral resources, its dynamic workforce and a comprehensive incentive policy to attract foreign investments.  

Located at the heart of the volcanic belts of the Tethyan Mediterranean Basin - a new focus area for international mining companies - Turkey hosts a variety of large mineral deposits including gold, copper, iron ore and coal. Indigenous natural stones and metal ore accounted for 47% of the country’s mining exports in 2016, and Turkey aims to increase its exports shares in the mining sector to US $15 million by 2023. Keen to attract foreign investors without compromising the development of the local mining economy, Turkey has imposed a limit to the use of its reserves to protect them from over-exploitation.

The expected pool of new investors to join the current international companies located in Turkey – circa 800 – will benefit from the quality of the country’s specialised labour market - embodied notably by 36,000 mining engineers - whilst low drilling costs, the proximity of major markets and competitive taxes complete a very attractive investment proposition.

CDE’s ‘New World of Resource’ ethos runs through every strand of the business, embedding a commitment to reduce waste as well as remediate and turn it into value. Turkey’s commitment to managing its mineral and metal ore reserves with a view to growing its mining exports market, whilst encouraging the responsible processing of its deposits, fits with the company’s dedication to providing materials wet processing solutions that produce maximum yield with a zero-waste objective.   

CDE, in partnership with local sales and services equipment company Dizel Turbo, already has a footprint in the country, having installed a series of its staple product - the EvoWash™ materials wet processing plant - across Turkey.

CDE Meta in Turkey: Local Experts for Local Solutions

In 2018, in line with its philosophy that CDE product experts based in country can offer the best advice and service to the company’s existing and prospective customers, the company invited me to join its MENA business development team to represent Turkey.

I was delighted to accept and looked forward to bringing a fresh approach to mineral processing to the Turkish market. A mining and processing engineer, I graduated from İstanbul Technical University in 2006. After graduating, I worked as a production engineer for five years for a leading foundry-silica sand production company in Turkey, where I got most of my washing and water treatment experience.

I then joined the sales team of CDE’s partner company in Turkey, Dizel Turbo, where I spent six years serving the Turkish aggregate and mining industry. We completed numerous projects such as 500 tph to 1,000 tph crushing plants, 100 tph to 400 tph washing and recycling plants and by-pass waste washing plants. Having now joined CDE whilst still working closely with Dizel Turbo is the best of both worlds for me as the partnership’s ethos is based on finding the best and most productive solutions for our customers’ specific requirements and providing excellent customer care.

We are now able to offer equipment quality at world-class level whilst remaining close to the requirements of our customer base in Turkey so as to serve them well, fast and without any language or cultural barriers.

The Future is Gold

Turkey’s mining sector is thriving thanks to the government implementing a successful investment incentive strategy since 2010, including for instance a staggering 80% tax reduction for some projects or 100% ownership of mining assets for foreign companies.

The gold sector is especially promising as the country’s reserves are still under-exploited and can typically allow to also yield copper as a by-product of the gold deposit, to the point that it is expected that Turkish copper production will grow by 6.8% every year until 2021.

CDE Meta, a CDE sector dedicated to mining technologies, is expected to become a key player in the development of the company’s portfolio of mining projects in Turkey. Adam Holland, who heads the sector, said: “There is no doubt that the range of CDE wet processing solutions can bring significant added value to mining operations in Turkey.

“CDE’s bespoke modular solutions have already proved themselves in terms of high production and fast return on investment across gold and diamond projects in Africa, as well as iron ore and phosphate projects across Australia, Asia, Europe, and South America.  

“Not only do CDE’s patented technologies allow for clean and energy-saving materials wet processing operations for quarries and mines, but the company’s innovative approach to waste management also opens up a new world of possibilities that involve the transformation of waste into high-value construction products whilst ultimately eliminating the need for settling ponds and tailings dams.”