YCL Aims to Diversify Its Mining Operations

We had an interview with Mustafa Burak Öğün, General Manager of YCL Madencilik, which is one of the important antimony mining companies in our country and has made a name for itself with its investments in the sector, about the company's goals, current situations in the enterprises and the mining sector.

Could you introduce your company?

YCL Mining started its commercial activities in Ankara in 2006. First, it carried out commercial activities in various sectors. With the added value created in these activities, our company continued to invest in animal husbandry, forest products and mining sectors over time.

YCL Mining has a strategic portfolio structure. In this context, ensuring value maximization in investments constitutes the managerial framework of YCL Mining. We gathered our activities under a single roof in 2019 with the slogan “for the future.” Establishing an effective management approach with a holistic approach constitutes the main basis of YCL Mining. In addition to increasing the capacity of our existing investments, YCL adopts an inclusive business development strategy that continuously pursues new opportunities and is integrated with a risk analysis and management approach.

Due to the fact that our investment process coincided with the pandemic, we experienced the problems experienced by all exporters due to the freight costs after the investment, but as of this year, we have started our exports and we are happy to bring new technologies to our country, contribute to its exports and discover and bring new mineral resources to our country.

In order to expand and develop our investments in the mining sector, our public offering processes are also ongoing. We are evaluating alternatives to be traded on the stock exchange in Turkey or abroad. We plan to give good news to the public about this in the near future.

Can you tell us about your mining operations and production activities?

Within the scope of the operating license, there is a license in a total area of 1430 hectares, and within the scope of the exploration and drilling investments made by our company, 44 hectares of work was carried out by obtaining permission for the area. Within this area, antimony ore with an average grade of 1-2%, 0.5 g/ton gold and 40 g/ton silver resources were found. Today, we are working on the operation of antimony ore. We carry out our exploration activities in an area of approximately 6 hectares. In this exploration area, 800,000 tons of antimony ore resource was detected.

We have invested in the first heavy media cyclone in Turkey for the processing of this resource. We are the first company in the world to enrich antimony ore with heavy media cyclone.

You continue your mining activities in antimony and precious metal fields. You have serious investments especially in antimony production. Could you tell us about your antimony operation and the importance of this investment?

Antimony is one of the critical raw materials in the world. As YCL, we foresee that antimony will be needed much more in the future both in our country and in the world. It is a source of excitement for us to commission this plant with an enrichment process that is known in the world but has not been tried before in our country. We are also planning to invest in a smelter in the future.