Operations at the Mponeng mine in South Africa, the world's deepest gold mine, have been halted after 164 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus. The mine was operating at about 50% capacity after resuming operations last month after being closed in March as part of a national lockdown. According to the mine's owners, AngloGold Ashanti, 650 workers had been tested after a first case was detected last week, most of those who tested positive were not showing symptoms, and those who tested positive have been put into isolation.

In a statement, AngloGold Ashanti said that operations have been halted to perform contact tracing, sanitize the workplace where applicable, and prevent further spread of the coronavirus. As of now, the South African National Department of Health has reported 21,343 confirmed cases of the virus alongside 407 Covid-19-related deaths. So far, just over 10,000 people have recovered.

Note: The statement by the AngloGold Ashanti company can be found here: https://thevault.exchange/?get_group_doc=143/1590325457-AngloGoldAshantiStatementProvidesUpdateonPositiveCasesatMponengMine.pdf . The statistics and numbers for this post were retrieved from the South African National Department of Health from http://www.health.gov.za/ . All photos are from the public domain, and can be used for all purposes including commercial purposes without attribution or further citation.