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Operations restarted on May 11 at its opencast Kareevlei mining operation, and the company believes it can run at full capacity there while abiding by the South African government's lockdown regulations, it said.

However, the board has taken a number of steps to keep production costs as low as possible, including a reduction in development mining to align with lower annual production, a removal of contract crushing and a freeze on hiring.

"Our focus remains on the preservation of cash as we work our way through what is a very difficult and uncertain time," BlueRock chairman Mike Houston said in a statement.