About 80% of Mexico's mining sector has restarted as the country continues to ease requirements on miners amid the coronavirus pandemic, Francisco Quiroga, Mexico's undersecretary of mines with the country's Ministry of Economy, said in an interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Mexico largely shut down the mining sector in late March in response to COVID-19 and started to allow restarts in mid-May after it declared the mining sector an essential service. Mexico is fully allowing mine restarts as of June 1, Quiroga said. After May 18, it began authorizing mines to do so on a case-by-case basis.

Operations that have started to ramp up include Newmont Corp.'s Penasquito gold mine and Alamos Gold Inc.'s Mulatos gold mine.

Mines opening in Mexico, as in other countries and jurisdictions, face new rules to curb the spread of COVID-19, including virus testing and social distancing. In principle, mines will not be forced to shutter if COVID-19 cases are detected on-site, Quiroga said.

"The moment they are declared essential the idea is that the mines can operate irrespective of the situation," Quiroga said.

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But to maintain the support of the public behind operating mines, strict containment protocols would be critical, Quiroga said. "We have taken a very responsible, conservative approach to the return of operations," he said.

Quiroga noted that the Mining Ministry issued guidance about curbing viral spread in the first week of March, before the federal government ordered mines to shut down. As such, he said mines have had a lot of time to implement safety measures.

Throughout the interview with Market Intelligence, Quiroga stressed that the federal government was aware of the need to maintain the support of communities around mines. He also noted that the mining sector was well suited to control the virus, given the industry's focus on safety.

"Sanitary authorities have repeatedly called the mining sector the best equipped and best prepared to go back to operations," Quiroga said.

Worldwide, operational restrictions in the mining sector have started to ease as countries grapple with restarting economic activity and COVID-19. Some of the tougher responses in North and South America came from Mexico, Peru and Quebec. Since requiring mine shutdowns earlier this year, all three jurisdictions have since opened the door to operation restarts.

Mining operations in Mexico will also face greater scrutiny over adherence to health and safety measures. Quiroga said Mexico's Department of Labor would have coronavirus-specific health inspections by officials who could visit mine sites without announcing their arrival first.

"They will not have a punitive focus," Quiroga said. "If there's something wrong, we will invite companies to fix it."