The employees of the Sotk gold mine in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province have been sent on forced paid downtime because the impossibility of working due to the Azerbaijani shootings, GeoProMining Gold company, which operates this mine, informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Since April 23, operations at the Sotk gold mine have been stopped due to the periodic shots fired by Azerbaijan in the direction of this mine.

"We tried to resume the work of the mine eight or nine times, but we interrupted [them] due to the Azerbaijani shootings. The company has decided to send the employees to forced paid downtime until May 15," said GeoProMining Gold.