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On May 13, the Mexican Government officially deemed mining as essential and able to restart on May 18. Previously, on March 31, the Mexican Ministry of Health issued a decree requiring non-essential businesses, including mining, to temporarily suspend activities until May 30, to mitigate and contain sanitary risks associated with COVID-19.

A number of precious metals producers have reported their intention to get their operations back into production including Newmont at Penasquito, Alamos Gold at Mulatos, Torex Gold at El Limon Guajes, Coeur Mining at Palmarejo and First Majestic Silver at its an Dimas, Santa Elena and La Encantada.

"We are preparing Penasquito and our workforce for a safe, orderly and timely resumption of production. As we've been doing at all of our operations and sites around the globe, we will maintain rigorous health and safety controls to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 to our workforce and neighboring communities," said Newmont president and CEO Tom Palmer.

The start-up of Penasquito is expected to take roughly two weeks to reach stable production levels.

"Operations at Mulatos will be ramped up in a safe manner. To date, we have not had any confirmed cases of COVID-19 among any of our employees or contractors," said Alamos Gold president and CEO John McCluskey.

Mulatos is expected to return to normal operating levels in June.