Chile’s Mining Minister Baldo Prokurica on Tuesday underlined the need to strike a balance between protecting mine workers from the new coronavirus and keeping the economic engine of the world’s largest copper producer running.
Prokurica said the "indispensable" mining sector had stood down around half its workforce and tightened health protocols in response to the outbreak of the virus in Chile in March.
But if the government is to sustain emergency social support packages to address economic fallout from the pandemic, the mining industry needs to keep operating, he said.