Rio Tinto’s Utah operations shut down temporarily
Rio Tinto has temporarily suspended operations at its Kennecott mine as a precautionary measure after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake near Salt Lake City, Utah impacted the mine on Wednesday. Rio Tinto released a statement saying all its employees working at the mine at that time are safe and that the company has identified limited risks to the operation or the surrounding community so far. However, it has halted all its operations in keeping with its standard operating procedure and has closed the road leading up to the mine while it carries out a thorough safety investigation before resuming operations.
Auriana Resources suspends Eucador mining ops
Aurania Resources is withdrawing field employees amid mounting reports of COVID-19 infections in Ecuador and Ontario’s provincial government declaring a state of emergency. Aurania is mining at Cordillera de Cutucu in Ecuador, but after the country’s Ministry of Health issued a quarantine directive, it decided to send its employees home. The precious metals and copper miner is headquartered in Toronto, where its employees are now working remotely following the Province of Ontario declaring a state of emergency. The company reported none of its employees, nor employees at its subsidiary EcuaSolidus SA, are infected with COVID-19.