It is located in the vicinity of the Sotk village in the Vardenis region of Armenia's Gegharkunik Province, and the adjacent part of the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan.
[8][9][10][11] The ore has been processed at the Ararat Gold Extraction Plant, where it is transported by rail.
[citation needed] When the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war began on 27 September, GeoProMining temporarily suspended the operation of the mine.
[16] The next day, the head of the Armenian community of Geghamasar (adjacent to Azerbaijan) reported that the Azerbaijani military had entered the mine.
[17] On the evening of that day, it was announced that representatives of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan had begun carrying out delimitation works using GPS technology to determine where the state border lay.