The Turkish company Onur has decided not to develop a precious metals deposit in the Dnipropetrovsk region. What is the reason?
16 March 21:00
The State Service of Geology and Subsoil has revoked the special permit granted to Spis Ukraine LLC, a subsidiary of Turkey’s Onur Group, for the geological exploration and pilot-scale development of the Zhovtovodskaya gold and niobium ore deposit in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. This was reported by Nadra.info, according to [Komersant].
The grounds for revoking the special permit are stated as follows: a request from the subsoil user to terminate the special permit for subsoil use, including if the need for subsoil use has ceased.
Earlier, it became known that a company from the Onur Group, specifically as the holder of the permit for the Zhovtovodsk area, was included in the list of strategic subsoil users and holders of so-called “dormant” licenses, which, according to the order and repeated statements by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, are subject to audits and unscheduled inspections.
Spis Ukraine acquired a special permit for the Zhovtovodskaya area at an auction in December 2020 for over 5.7 million UAH. At the end of 2021, it became known that drilling results at the Zhovtovodskaya area were unsatisfactory.
“They drilled 12 wells. There is no gold. It’s not even close. Not even a thousandth of a gram per ton. Now a foreign company is filing a claim. Against whom? Against the Geological Service. Because they said there should be gold there,” said Oleksiy Falkovych, director of Geological Service Company GSK LLC and candidate of geological sciences.
Later, Emre Karaahmetoglu, CEO of Onur Group in Ukraine, stated that the gold content in the ore at the Zhovtovodskaya site turned out to be three times lower than the investor had expected. According to project documents, the Onur Group had expected a figure of about 4.5 g of gold per ton of ore, but instead, geological exploration yielded about 1.4 g/t.
“This is significantly lower and makes mining economically unfeasible. Therefore, we see no prospects in this area and do not plan to invest further,” Emre Karaahmetoğlu stated.
He also reported that the Onur Group had considered seeking compensation through the courts “due to discrepancies in the State Geological Service’s data on reserves,” but ultimately deemed the legal route unpromising, “withdrew the lawsuit, and continued to work in constructive dialogue with the State Geological Service.”
Niobium ores in Ukraine are included in the lists of minerals and components of strategic and critical importance. Niobium and gold are mentioned in the list of valuable components, and new projects for their extraction will contribute to the Ukrainian-American Investment Fund for Reconstruction.
Following the denial of a permit for the Zhovtovodsk area containing gold and niobium ores, the Onur Group controls eight subsoil plots in Ukraine with deposits of limestone, sand, migmatite, granite, kaolin, and graphite, according to Nadra.info.
As previously reported, the Turkish company Onur Group plans to begin mining at the Burtyne graphite ore deposit in the Khmelnytskyi region in 2026.
Spis Ukraine specializes in the extraction of gold and other non-ferrous metal ores, graphite, kaolin, building stone, limestone, gypsum, chalk, and clay shale, as well as sand, gravel, clay, and other minerals; the company also operates in the field of quarry development.
Currently, according to Youcontrol, Spis Ukraine LLC is controlled by Onur Çetindeviz and Murat Kavak (Turkish citizens), and is headed by Fırat Çakmak.
The owners of Onur Group are Turkish businessmen Onur and Ihsan Cetinjeviz. The CEO of the group of companies in Ukraine is Emre Karaahmetoglu. Onur Group has over 50 enterprises in Ukraine across various sectors of the economy.
