The Sotk mine, Armenia’s largest gold mine, was unable to resume operations on Monday as Azerbaijani forces continued to open fire on the establishment for the third consecutive day.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry on Monday said that the latest attacks took place at around 10 p.m. local time on Sunday. The attacks on the Sotk gold mine, in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province, began Friday evening and continued into Saturday.
While no casualties were reported, mine operators have been forced to halt all activities and production at the mine.
“The mine’s operations were halted on Saturday morning and have still not been relaunched due to periodical gunfire,” said Ruzanna Grigoryan, a spokeswoman for the Russian-owned company GeoProMining Gold that operates the mine told Azatutyun.am.
She said that 300 workers making up the company’s day shift were evacuated on Monday morning after again coming under fire.
“As soon as the day shift tried to get to work this morning, yesterday morning and Saturday morning gunshots resumed and we had to evacuate the workers for security considerations,” she added.
“We gathered to go to work today but they didn’t let us,” said one of the workers. “As soon as there is movement at the mine and it’s about to work they open fire.”