Among those affected is Hochschild Mining, which has shuttered its San Jose mine to comply with a regional lockdown order in Santa Cruz. The province had seen a significant surge in COVID-19 infections, prompting the new restrictions.

However, Hochschild said it planned to restart "limited operations" on Wednesday, and that stoppage would not eat into its revised 2020 production guidance of between 280,000-290,000oz gold-equivalent in 2020.

McEwen Mining, which owns 49% of San Jose, also said attributable current-quarter output would be affected by the shutdown, but it stopped short of providing revised guidance.

Meanwhile, Canada's uranium leader Cameco reported a positive coronavirus case at its recently restarted Cigar Lake mine, in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin. It said the individual had been in isolation since November 22.

Cameco restarted Cigar Lake in early September after idling it during the first wave of COVID-19 in March.

As winter approaches Canada is grappling with a second wave of infections that have seen movement restrictions return.

Deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland has revealed the country's fall economic statement, which pegged the federal deficit at C$382 billion this fiscal year. While the federal government has been light on divulging details about its recovery plan, Freeland proposed spending between $70-$100 billion over three years on "carefully judged, targeted and meaningful investments to create jobs and boost growth".

The pandemic has been linked to more than 12,000 Canadian deaths since the first cases emerged in March, with more than 377,459 infections reported to date.

Argentina has recorded 1.4 million infections and nearly 40,000 deaths to date, according to Johns Hopkins University.