Eti Bakır, which continues its activities with a focus on sustainability; Artvin implemented an R&D project with Çoruh University and TÜBİTAK, aiming to develop environmentally friendly production. With the project, which is an important indicator of university-industry cooperation, it is aimed to rehabilitate the soil in the best way and bring it into the forest area.

Leading the zero-carbon journey in the mining industry and working to reduce its carbon footprint to 10 percent in the next five years, Eti Bakır continues its investments in environmentally friendly production. Eti Bakır, which was taken from the Privatization Administration in 2004 and started to operate under the roof of Cengiz Holding, has invested more than 2 billion dollars in mining technologies, infrastructure and R&D innovations as well as reducing carbon and water footprints in the last 20 years. implemented an important project for the environmental rehabilitation of its fields.

Eti Bakır’s 18-month R&D project, carried out in cooperation with Artvin Çoruh University, with the support of TÜBİTAK and the Technology and Innovation Support Programs Presidency (TEYDEB), includes the use of special plants for soil improvement in mining areas. The results obtained from the studies using castor oil, sunflower, poplar and birch plants became the reference for the best rehabilitation of the soil.

IT IS DONE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MINING

Eti Bakır Environment Director Yusuf Topçu said that Eti Bakır, which produces from the mine to the final product and provides added value to the economy by meeting 20% of the copper production alone, sets an example to the world with its sustainability vision. Expressing that the widespread use of sustainable business models in global companies for the last 20 years has played a critical role in production, Topçu continued: “With the circular economy, we contribute to the world’s zero carbon journey by improving our own processes. We implement many environmentalist studies from waste management to afforestation, from water and energy efficiency to reducing carbon emissions. Now we have gone one step beyond this and implemented an important R&D project. With the support of Artvin Çoruh University, TÜBİTAK and TEYDEB, we broke new ground in the mining industry in Turkey. With this project, we identified the plants that accelerate the rehabilitation of the soil and provide the most definitive solution. Studies have shown us that these plants make important contributions to the purification and improvement of metals in the soil. The rehabilitation works to be carried out in Artvin will now be carried out in accordance with this project. Thus, we will rehabilitate our mining areas in the most accurate way and bring them back to forest areas. We plan to carry out this project, which we first started in Artvin, in the regions where our other businesses are located in the coming period.”

Source: (BYZHA) – Beyaz News Agency