According to Mining News Pro - “As the workforce for the project includes many contract employees who travel from other regions of Portugal and internationally, the risk is that the virus could be brought to the Alentejo region by people travelling to come to work on our project,” president and CEO Marie Inkster said in the statement.

She noted that Lundin was assessing the impacts of the temporary suspension of the project on the timelines and budget and will provide an update once the assessments have been completed.

The company also said one of its employees at its Candelaria copper-gold-silver complex in Chile had tested positive for Covid-19 upon returning from a trip abroad. It noted the person had not been to work since returning to the country, which on Monday announced it was closing all borders for 15 days, beginning March 18, to contain the outbreak.

Lundin, with mines in Brazil, Chile, Portugal, Sweden and the US, said its monitoring and implementing business continuity measures at each of its operations to mitigate and minimize any potential impacts of the global outbreak of the virus, which has already killed more than 6,500 worldwide.