Changing Borders Threaten Armenia’s Sotk Gold Mine
Given the border changes resulting from the recent war in Artsakh, the Sotk gold mine, the largest in Armenia, now straddles the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Border demarcation is currently underway at the mine site in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province, southeast of Lake Sevan’s lower basin. Prior to the recent war, the other side of the border was the New Shahumyan District of the Artsakh Republic. That region has been handed to Azerbaijani control according to the November 9 truce agreement.
Hakob Avetyan is the mayor of Geghamasar, a community of eighteen villages in Armenia near the mine site.
Avetyan told Hetq that Armenian Defense Ministry representatives were on site to demarcate the new border and that Azerbaijani authorities are doing the same from their side.
“I don't know how much will be left for us and how much for them,” Avetyan told Hetq.
Ruzanna Grigoryan, a representative of the GeoProMining Gold, the company working the mine, said she couldn’t comment on the mine’s destiny.
GeoProMining Gold LLC is 96% owned by Russian billionaire businessman Roman Trotsensko.
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