Breaking New Ground: Women's History Month (Canada)

October is Women’s History Month in Canada, a time to celebrate women from our past, and our present, who are contributing to a better, more inclusive world.

In recognition of this month of celebration, two of Eldorado Gold’s employees, Gülsüm Akkaya, and Yelda Temizci, who both work at our operations in Turkey, were selected to highlight the achievements made by women in mining companies, by the Mining Association of Canada.

Gülsüm is a local employee at our Efemçukuru gold mine. She was born in the village of Çatalca, near Izmir, and is one of two daughters of a farming family. After completing her primary, secondary and high school education in Menderes County, she graduated from the Technical Construction department of the Manisa Turgutlu Celal Bayar University in 2011.

Gülsüm took her first step in her career in the mining industry as an executive assistant at Efemçukuru. While she was working there, she decided to study further and attended Mine Engineering classes in the evenings.  She achieved her goal and graduated from the department of Mine Engineering at Dokuz Eylül University.

Gülsüm is the first and only female Underground Shift Supervisor at Efemçukuru as of 2020.  Since 2017, she has had daily responsibility for 25 mining employees.

Yelda works at our Kışladağ mine and is the company’s first female CAT Truck driver, and Turkey’s first female rock truck operator.

Yelda was born in Artvin in northeast Turkey, the youngest of five children. After completing her primary, secondary and high school education, she graduated from the Afyonkarahisar province’s Eşme County Vocational School with a business administration associate degree. She then completed the Anadolu University Labor Economics undergraduate program.

Yelda gained work experience in various professional fields such as textiles, sales & marketing and pharmaceuticals before starting at Kışladağ gold mine in 2008.  Yelda worked in Kışladağ’s Public Relations and Government Relations department for seven years, then in the Mobile Equipment Maintenance Department for three years.  She has now worked as a Rock Truck Operator in the open pit department since July 2018.

We salute our female colleagues and all women at Eldorado Gold and in the mining sector, who have made, and continue to make, a lasting impact on our industry.