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The collapse of the epidemic in the mining industry silver mines have been the most affected nearly 66% of the world's silver production is on hold.

iconApr 30, 2020 13:18

SMM4, March 30: this year's epidemic seriously affected the global mining industry, data show that a total of 32 countries around the world through some or all of the lock-up order. As a result, as of 3 April, there had been a cumulative global moratorium on mining activities at more than 1600 mines, but that number had dropped to 729 as some regional restrictions began to be relaxed.

Many of the exempted mines operate with a reduction in the number of workers, so the growth rate of mine production has slowed significantly. Of these, silver is the biggest victim of mining activities affected by covid-19, with nearly 66 per cent of global annual production still shelved.

As a result of the outbreak, a number of silver mines have withdrawn production guidance for 2020, such as First Majestic,Hochschild,Hecla Mining and Endeavor Silver.

Statistics show that the progress of 23 mines under construction around the world has also been suspended, including Peru's $5.3 billion Quellaveco copper mine, one of the largest copper mines under construction in the world. The annual copper production capacity of the project reaches 180000 tons. In addition, Antofagasta (Antofagasta) suspended its Los Pelambres project and Tek Resource (Teck Resources) suspended work on the Quebrada Blanca II phase mine.

According to GlobalData, other metals that have suffered production disruptions include uranium (32 per cent), zinc (23.8 per cent), platinum (19.5 per cent), nickel (14.6 per cent), diamonds (14.4 per cent) and copper (12.7 per cent).

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