Griffin Mining reassures shareholders as coronavirus affects operations

The AIM-traded firm said that, as per usual for the time of year, mining operations are currently suspended at the mine during the lunar Lunar New Year holiday.

It said that this year, operations were suspended for the holiday on 22 January, with milling operations continuing throughout the period using stockpiled ore.

Mining operations were due to restart on 29 January.

In the interim, due to travel restrictions imposed by authorities in Beijing, Griffin said its mining contractor had been unable to restart activities at Caijiaying due to a “complete quarantine” of Zhejiang province - the home province of most of its staff, where they returned for the holiday.

It said it was expecting the mining contractor to have enough staff on site to begin mining operations between 4 and 6 February.

Milling activities would continue until all stockpiles are depleted, which was anticipated in the next four days after which, following a mill servicing, normal full mining and milling should resume.

Griffin said no incidence of the coronavirus had been found or recorded at the Caijiaying Mine.

Additionally, it said it has instituted “severe” entry restrictions into the mine, including temperature and history screening prior to entry, decontamination of all possible surfaces and “extensive” new sterilisation practices.

Its board added that it seemed “clear” that Caijiaying had benefited from being more than 1,300 kilometres from the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province.

“The company has lived through two prior viral occurrences in China, namely the Avian flu and the SARS virus, and survived and prospered,” said chairman Mladen Ninkov.

“Although tragic for all the families and countries affected, this too is expected to pass and the company will be prepared to begin operations as soon as it can feasibly do so.”

At 1337 GMT, shares in Griffin Mining were down 5.92% at 66.33p.