Turkish gold mining: New Anatolia director brings an international billionaire's perspective
Powerful Turkish billionaire Ahmet Çalik has invested in a number of industries, and accumulated gold and copper properties along the way. Now Çalik is learning the nuts and bolts of international mining as a director for a junior North American gold mining company.
Author: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: Tuesday , 25 Aug 2009
RENO, NV -
mineweb.co.za
A few days ago, Denver's Anatolia Minerals announced a "strategic relationship" had been formed with Çalik Mining and the appointment of Ahmet Çalik to its board of directors.
The announcement mostly flew under the radar screen of a number of business publications, who mostly rehashed the Anatolia press release.
Imagine appointing a younger, less fatherly, Turkish version of Warren Buffet to the board of a Canadian junior mining company now in the process of constructing its first gold mine.
Except this Turkish incarnation of Warren Buffet is a former top official of Turkmenistan, a media mogul, an internationally respected oilman, and a deal-maker who opens doors in the Arab world that others can only dream of.
Ahmet Çalik's family started out as textile makers in the 1930s. In 1980 the family formed the company that would emerge into today's modern day conglomerate, the Çalik Group.
Çalik himself would forge powerful political and business ties which have brought admiration from some, such as Forbes Magazine, and criticism from those, such as citizens of Turkmenistan, where he served as deputy minister of textile industry.
Çalik cannot only open doors for a junior mining company in his native Turkey; he may possibly transform it beyond any hopeful shareholder's wildest dreams. The newly formed Çalik Mining will subscribe to a 5% interest in Anatolia's Çöpler gold project for US$12.6 million. The company had an option to acquire an additional 15% interest in Çöpler for an additional $37.8 million.
The strategic relationship "allows for and supports cooperation and cross investment to jointly explore and develop other mineral properties in Turkey on a 50/50 basis," says Anatolia. Çalik will learn the mining business from Anatolia's team of very experienced mining executives, led by CEO Edward Dowling, a former top De Beers and Cyprus Amax executive as well as the last CEO of Meridian Gold.
Anatolia says, "Calik's in-depth knowledge of the fabric of Turkish business will add substantial value to these early stage exploration projects." Next, in a significant understatement of Calik's clout, the junior miner reminds shareholders, "Ahmet Calik will significantly contribute to Anatolia's board as he is one of Turkey's most distinguished business leaders with an established history of building successful businesses."
Çalik may be closer to the Russian billionaire mining model than Anatolia lets on. The 50-year-old Calik is estimated to be worth $1.5 billion and ranks #701 on the "Forbes World's Billionaires 2009" list. The London Times describes Çalik as "one of the newest members of the Bosporus billionaire's club." Bosporus, the waterway that winds through the heart of Istanbul, now boosts homes of the newly wealthy that have turned Istanbul into a city of dreams, according to the Times.
Çalik Holding Company is the first Turkish company to have built cement, fertilizer and paper factories abroad. Its subsidiary Calik Energy became the leading contractor of the reconstruction of Turkmen power plants. The holding company was the general contractor of dozens of administration and apartment buildings in the capital of Turkmenistan, considered a new Dubai.
Some critics claim Ahmet Çalik, a close advisor to the former president of Turkmenistan, would make vast profits from state contracts, government grants, benefits and other privileges in the country.
In 2008, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had complained that the secular media was out to get him, especially the nation's biggest media conglomerate, the Dogan Group. In May 2008, Ahmet Çalik, considered a close associate of Erdogan, bought Dogan for US$1.1 billion.
Helping to finance the acquisition were two Turkish state-owned banks, which made US$750 million in loans to Calik Holding.
When Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Turkey this month, he was seeking Turkey's support for the South Stream project pipeline. An agreement was also made for the renewal of Turkey's natural gas import contract.
Also discussed between Putin and his Turkish counterpart Erdogan was the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline, belonging to Calik Holding and Italian ENI. Russia and Russian firms have recently signed a protocol to provide oil to the pipeline.
A written statement from Calik holding said Ahmet Çalik had made separate agreements with Russia's Gazprom and Rosneft.
A year ago, Kenya asked Ahmet Çalik to consider setting up fertilizer and textile manufacturing plants in the country. Calik Holdings has operations in Sudan, Egypt, Japan, China, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Argentina and Brazil among other nations.
In a recent interview with Mineweb, Anatolia CEO Dowling said the company's newest board member "has an impeccable reputation," which was important to the Denver-based miner as it searched for a Turkish partner.
Dowling is encouraging Çalik to help Anatolia "run our business" and get "intimately involved in the business." The same credentials and respect which led to Çalik being honored with Turkey's Distinguished Service Medal and the Foreign Ministry's Distinguished Service Medal will hopefully provide Anatolia with the advice in how to mitigate problems in Turkey "before they grow into issues," Dowling added.
With Çalik's appointment as a director, Dowling hopes Anatolia will establish "a presence in Turkey that otherwise might have taken decades to accomplish." Dowling also feels Çalik will help Anatolia become more of a part of the social fabric of Turkey.
"Any company going into a new nation that is not (working with) a local partner, it's not building a sustainable company," Dowling noted.
Dowling insists that, despite Çalik's wealth and prominence in international business circles, the happily married father of four remains a humble, decent, nice and quietly confident man-kind of like a Turkish version of Warren Buffet. |
