PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed gold miner OceanaGold has temporarily suspended operations at its Macreas and Waihi operations, in New Zealand, as the government implements a country-wide lockdown.

The company started suspending activities at the two mine sites on August 16, and based on government updates, said operations would remain suspended until at least August 27.

OceanaGold said on Tuesday that Waihi and Macraes remained in a state of operational readiness for a safe and rapid restart following the easing of restrictions.

“The health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce is paramount,” commented MD and CEO Michael Holmes.

“To date we have not had any confirmed cases of Covid-19 among our employees or contractors in New Zealand. We have strict health and safety protocols in place to help keep our workers safe during these challenging times.”

He noted that while mining, processing and exploration activities were temporarily suspended at Waihi, the company was maintaining feed from stockpiles through the Macraes autoclave to ensure there were no potential health, safety or environmental hazards resulting from the unplanned shutdown. Critical personnel remain at each site to maintain important environmental and safety standards and ensure the security and maintenance of the operations.

“Our assets remain in a state of operational readiness to resume normal operations quickly and safely once the restrictions are lifted,” said Holmes.

“Given the situation is dynamic and the duration of the lockdown is currently uncertain, we are unable to determine the final impact on New Zealand production and related costs for the full year. We expect to update the market accordingly with the easing of restrictions and resumption of operations.”

Haile gold mine continues to operate at normal levels and the restart of Didipio is progressing as planned, including the commencement of concentrate transport from site. The company continues to expect to achieve full year guidance at Haile and to benefit from the restart of production at Didipio in the fourth quarter.