Disruptions to Peru’s mining sector caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused production to fall by 15 percent in 2020, representing a loss of as much as $5 billion,

Reuters reported that Victor Gobitz, general manager of mining company Buenaventura told a virtual news conference that large-scale mining, which makes up 80 percent of Peru’s copper production, would not be fully up and running until early June.

“Those should be the production levels that could be warning of production losses toward the end of the year,” Gobitz said.

Some Peruvian mining operations are partially operating after the government gradually eased restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. The sector will go through four phases of reactivation until August, the government has said.

Peru’s mining sector has been hit hard by the pandemic. The country has 129,751 confirmed cases of the virus - the second most in Latin America - with a death toll now around 3,788.

Gobitz said companies with underground mines will try to target high-grade areas “to make up for lost time.”

“I think that it will only be possible to regain full production levels in the third quarter,” Gobitz said.