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Since the exploration camp is 5km from the Fekola mine site, the 80%-owned operation remains currently unaffected and continues to operate.

The Vancouver-headquartered company said the infected employee started to experience symptoms on April 12 and was immediately isolated at the camp, where they remain in quarantine, with company doctors and the local Kéniéba Health Authority in attendance. The employee is said to be stable with only moderate symptoms.

B2Gold isolated the exploration group and completed site and community contact-tracing.

B2Gold said it was thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting the exploration camp, and the Fekola mine camp, which had not had any COVID-19 cases.

The miner, which poured first gold at Fekola in late 2017, reported last week a quarterly production record of 164,011oz, accounting for more than half of B2Gold's record quarterly output of 262,632oz.

Fekola is near Mali's border with Senegal, and about 520km from the country's capital, Bamako.

B2Gold shares (BTO:TSX) are up 77% in the past 12 months at C$6.45, trading near the top-end of its 12-month range of $3.12-$6.95, and capitalising it at $6.7 billion (US$4.8 billion).