Dual-listed McEwen Mining will immediately restart operations at the Black Fox mine, in Timmins, Canada, and said that its 49%-owned San Jose mine, in Argentina, would also restart.

Production at the Black Fox mine was suspended on March 26 for two weeks to allow the management time to evaluate and adapt to operating with the risk associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

McEwen reported on Tuesday that it had implemented rigorous policies and procedures to minimise the potential risks to the health of workers at the Black Fox mine.

“Our miners and teams are overwhelmingly supportive of returning to work with the new safety measures, and the decision has been made to restart operations immediately.”

The Black Fox mine produced 8 328 gold-equivalent ounces (GEOs).

At San Jose, Hochschild Mining had notified McEwen that it would restart production, but there would be ongoing labour and travel restrictions that meant that the ramp-up would take place over an extended period.

Mining was suspended from March 20 in line with a nationwide quarantine period imposed in Argentina to combat the spread of Covid-19. Government has now granted San Jose permission to restart production.

San Jose produced 8 993 oz of gold and 551 872 oz of silver, for a total of 14 864 GEOs, in the first quarter.

In Nevada, the Gold Bar mine contract mining stopped on April 1 and crushing and stacking stopped on April 14. Downstream activities, such as heap leaching and process plant operations are continuing.

Gold Bar produced 9 133 GEOs in the first quarter.

In Mexico, El Gallo produced 2 737 GEOs from residual leaching of the heap leach pad. On April 1, the Mexican government ordered the temporary closure of all non-essential businesses, including mining, to combat the spread of Covid-19. This order limits some activities at El Gallo, but McEwen said it was not expected to have a significant effect on residual leaching.

In total, McEwen produced 29 177 oz of gold and 553 179 oz of silver, or 35 062 GEOs, in the first quarter.