WRITTEN BY DON CAMPBELL

Demir Export was founded in 1957 and has always been a very active player in the Turkish mining sector. With a number of glowing projects underway we spoke with General Manager Savas Sahin regarding it.

ACTIVELY INVESTING IN

The Future

The main activities of Demir Export revolve around iron ore

production for domestic integrated steel mills. As a group

they are constantly investing in exploration and development

of new greenfield iron ore mines, as well as improvement of their

processing facilities at their existing operations.

“We are active in three iron ore zones; Sivas, Kayseri, and Balıkesir.

In total, we have six iron ore mines, from where we are producing

almost 1.5 million tonnes every year.” Mr. Sahin reveals.

Another business unit is coal. Currently they are providing 6.5

Mtpa coal at Kangal TPP operated by another Turkish private company.

At Turkish Coal Enterprises’ Soma coal fields they are developing

Eynez East UG Coal Mine, which will start commercial production

in 2015. This project is now at an advanced development stage. The

mining method at Eynez East will be sublevel LTCC (longwall top coal

caving) which is a very unique coal mining method and the operation

will be fully mechanized from top down.

The base metal (copper in concentrate) is being mined at their

Lahanos mine in northeast Turkey, this is a small scale UG mine and

alongside that Demir Export are exploring the possibility of base

metals in northwest Turkey. One of their targets is Ulutas (Erzurum

province), where they are exploring for porphyry Cu-Mo deposit. So

far, the exploration results, 17.000 meters of core drilling completed

and ongoing, proved to support their efforts to chase a +500 Mton

reserve with local high grade intersections.

“In 2013 we have started our first gold mine project, Bakırtepe

in Sivas province,” Mr. Sahin explains, “However, the construction was

DEMIR EXPORT

“Demir Export produces 25% of the iron ore production in Turkey, representing 1.5 million tonnes per year,” Mr. Sahin tells us, “Core business is iron ore, but the future will be iron, gold and coal in three main business units including ferrous- iron, energy- coal and base metals- gold, copper and zinc. Construction for production for gold mine is under way.“We are active in three iron ore zones; Sivas, Kayseri, and Balıkesir. In total, we have seven iron ore mines, from where we are producing almost 1.5 million tonnes every year.” Mr. Sahin reveals.”

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halted for permitting issues and we are expecting the construction

will restart in early next year and our target is to pour the first gold

done by the end of 2014. Our exploration for gold also continues in

different exploration tenements, in central and west Anatolia.”

Staff“We have 975 people working at our operations and head office in

Ankara,” Mr. Sahin adds, “Including the contractors and subcontractor,

this number reaches up to 1500,”

“We have three layers of training,” he adds, “The first layer is

generic HSE training given to all employees when they first start

working with us. Other HSE training packages are also provided for

the site personnel, such as risk management, incident reporting, etc.

Some blue collar employees also receive technical training as well.

Especially mechanical and electrical people receive specific training

on the equipment they are dealing with.”

The second layer is training for site supervisors. This training

generally revolves around safety issues, such as incident/accident

investigation, risk management, hazard identification and so on. The

third layer of training is for developing managerial skills of managers

and supervisors.

“Leadership training is given to our superintendents and

managers,” he points out, “And moreover, our very technical training

(as required) is provided to our engineers and geologists, such as 3D

software trainings, project management and advanced excel training.

Our most important asset is our people.”

With this principle, Demir Export places great importance on

training to address the development of professional knowledge and

the skills of their people. In this regard, training plans are created for

all staff members, and the related training is conducted within the

year and monitored by the HR department.

CustomersDemir Export’s biggest customers are domestic integrated steel

mills, namely Kardemir, Erdemir and Isdemir, and overseas buyers.

The most important demands of their customers are consistent

product quality and increasing production capacity and these are the

important points that they take care to ensure customer satisfaction.

“Although it looks like the resources market is not as competitive,

it is not true for iron ore market,” Mr. Sahin explains, “Domestic iron

ore market is the same. As long as we honour our contracts from

quality and quantity aspects we are more successful in delivering

what we committed. So far, we

have a very good and prospective

relationship with our iron ore

customers and we are caring to

continue this situation.”

2014 And Beyond“The most exciting project for

2014, is our ULUTAS (in Erzurum

province) Cu-Mo project. This

project was acquired from

Mining Bureau’s bidding process

in 2012 and we rapidly moved

to the site and completed all our

geological mapping, initiated

geophysical inspection, and

geochemistry to cover the entire

potential of the tenement.”

On top these, Demir Exports

have completed almost 17.000

meters of core drilling and

the current situation of the

project is definitely exciting

as they continue drilling and

development efforts to target

a +500 Mt Cu-Mo porphyry

deposit. This project will be

inserted in the project pipeline

in 2016 with an aim to start

commercial production in 2018

or earlier and has a potential to

be largest base metal mine in the

country in near future.

“Our diverse portfolio

is expanding with gold and

underground coal mining,” says

Mr. Sahin, “So far, we produce

coal from open pit mine but now

we will use fully mechanized

method to produce coal from

underground. Underground coal

production is becoming more

DEMIR EXPORT

widespread in Turkey; therefore Eynez East Underground Coal mine

project is very critical for our company.”

The other exciting development is Bakırtepe Gold Project. Gold

production from Bakırtepe will be the first for Demir Export and it is

believed that it will be the first step to become a gold miner in Turkey.

These developments help Demir Export to consolidate its

position and being an international player. There are many domestic

and overseas opportunities in gold and base metal mining areas also

the historical developments of gold and mechanized underground

coal mining sectors show that new opportunities will come. With help

of new developments, Demir Export will be better positioned for the

upcoming opportunities.

“Our biggest investment is our people. We have expanded the

exploration and project development teams in our headquarters.

We have also added new positions in our operations to improve

and extend on-site planning and project development skills and

capabilities. Beginning from next year, we are thinking about bringing

experienced expats on board on contract basis to assist our local

workforce to develop and maintain international safety standards at

our operations.” Mr. Sahin concludes.

Our biggest investment is our people. We have expanded the exploration and project development teams in our headquarters. We have also added new positions in our operations to improve and extend on-site planning and project development skills and capabilities.

DEMIR EXPORT

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