Australia's bipartisan and federated response to the coronavirus has been applauded as best in class by the president of the world's biggest gold multinational, but with the proviso that any restart of normal life should be guided by health experts and approached conservatively.

Newmont mines in eight nations and its president, Tom Palmer, is running the $US47 billion ($78 billion) business during the pandemic from a house in Perth rather than company headquarters in the US city of Denver.