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Mining co sold rocks to Turkey govt instead of coal

Court of Accounts inspectors examined 1.5 million tons of the 2.3 million tons of coal that the Soma A.Ş. mining firm sold the government last year and discovered that 780,000 tons were in fact not coal but actually rocks, stones and other material, according to a report in the Hürriyet daily on Sunday.

Opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Özgür Özel, who is also a member of Parliament's Soma Commission, has claimed that the losses sustained by the state amount to TL 49 million. Moreover, the results of 10 studies conducted in 2013-2014 found that 54,000 tons of coal with a calorific value of between 1,653 and 1,788 kcal/kg were delivered to the state despite the fact that the firm is required to dispose of coal with a calorific value of 1,800 kcal/kg or under.

“They blatantly sold the state rocks, and the public systematically paid for it,” said Özel, speaking to Hürriyet.

Soma A.Ş. began to operate the Soma Eynez mine in 2005 after it was privatized by the state. Following the mine's privatization the price of coal per ton plummeted from around $140 to $24. The mine was the site of a deadly disaster in May of last year, when 301 miners died following an explosion. The tragedy went down as the worst workplace disaster in the history of the Turkish Republic, and was one of numerous deadly mining accidents that occurred in 2014.

Source: Todays Zaman