Newmont Corp., the world’s largest gold-mining company has placed four of its operations into temporary care and maintenance mode and withdrew its full year 2020 guidance as part of its efforts to further protect the health and safety of its workforce, their families and neighboring communities while also taking steps to preserve long-term business value on the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our business continuity plans and rapid response teams have been fully mobilized in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic,” said Tom Palmer, president and chief executive officer. “We are working closely with host communities, First Nations and other indigenous peoples, regional and national governments and health experts to protect our workforce and nearby communities. This includes putting some operations temporarily into care and maintenance while others continue to operate at targeted production levels. We are also making sure that these short-term disruptions do not impact long-term business value while ensuring we are well-positioned to safely and efficiently ramp up operations in a timely manner once the worst of this global pandemic passes.”

Newmont reported that its Musselwhite Mine in Ontario, Canada; Eleonore Mine in Quebec, Canada; Cerro Negro Mine in Argentina and Yanacocha Mine in Peru will be placed in temporary care and maintenance mode. The company also reported that mines representing 80 percent of Newmont’s production outlook for 2020 continue operating in line with production targets for the year and have implemented heightened levels of health screening, along with support services being conducted remotely.

“We currently have no confirmed COVID-19 cases among our workforce and are taking significant proactive measures including social distancing at all our sites; removing substantial numbers of non-critical workers from our operations; closing offices with employees working remotely; and stopping all non-essential business travel to ensure we don’t become a pathway for transmission to others,” said Palmer. “These are unprecedented times for all industries and while this pandemic brings a lot of uncertainty, Newmont is well-positioned to safely and responsibly generate long-term value for all of our stakeholders.”

Newmont also announced that it is withdrawing only its full-year 2020 guidance as some production could be deferred into 2021, potentially impacting costs in 2020 if some operations are on care and maintenance for an extended period. “The company’s long-term value proposition remains unchanged, despite these shorter-term disruptions, as Newmont continues to have the industry’s largest gold mineral reserves of 95.7 million ounces,” Newmont said in a statement.

For the first quarter of 2020, Newmont now expects to produce approximately 1.4 million attributable gold ounces and approximately 325,000 co-product gold equivalent ounces. Year to date through February 29, 2020, the company produced approximately 981,000 attributable gold ounces and approximately 227,000 co-product gold equivalent ounces. Newmont continues to work proactively with logistics partners and refiners to transport and refine product in a challenging environment.

“We are not currently experiencing significant delays in the shipping of concentrate or transportation and refining of dore, but they may occur in the coming days and weeks if certain government-required shutdowns and border restrictions occur,” the company said in a statement.