Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
15 Mar 2024resource reserve update● NeutralMajor
Filed the Fekola Complex technical report as at December 2023, consolidating the mine, Cardinal, Anaconda and Dandoko: probable reserves of 61.8 million tonnes at 1.70 g/t for 3.39 million ounces and indicated resources of 155.4 million tonnes at 1.28 g/t for 6.39 million ounces, on a 100% basis. B2Gold holds 80% of the Fekola pit and 90% of Anaconda and Dandoko, with Mali entitled under its 2023 mining code to acquire up to a further 20% plus 5% in the latter two.
More Fekola Complex drilling, including 14.60m at 9.48 g/t in hole BND_119, some of the highest-grade sulphide yet at Anaconda, published alongside consecutive monthly production records at Fekola in October and November and a reaffirmed 2022 guidance of 990,000-1,050,000 ounces including 40,000-50,000 attributable from Calibre.
Drilling confirmed the Mamba Main sulphide shoot at Anaconda over more than 700 metres down plunge, with 28.70m at 5.89 g/t in hole BND_108, and returned first results from the Cobra zone 2km east including 13.80m at 6.75 g/t. B2Gold now describes Fekola, Cardinal, Anaconda, Bakolobi and Dandoko together as the Fekola Complex.
The Anaconda area, 20km from Fekola, was given a maiden indicated resource of 32.4 million tonnes at 1.08 g/t for 1.13 million ounces plus 63.7 million tonnes at 1.12 g/t for 2.28 million ounces inferred, a 196% increase in inferred ounces. B2Gold said selective saprolite averaging 2.2 g/t could be trucked to the Fekola mill from as early as late 2022, subject to permits.
Mali granted a new exploration permit over the same ground as the disputed Menankoto permit, restoring access to the Anaconda area, and B2Gold published an increased resource for the Cardinal-FMZ zone 500 metres from the Fekola pit. Drilling was to restart by 15 February 2022.
Drilling extended the Cardinal and FMZ zones near Fekola to more than 3.5 kilometres of strike and the Mamba zone in the Anaconda area to about 2.2 kilometres, on an US$18 million Mali programme. B2Gold guided to a maiden inferred resource for Cardinal in the first quarter of 2021 and an updated Anaconda resource by the end of 2020.
The updated Gramalote assessment put a 13.6-year open pit at 3.85 million ounces, averaging 416,600 ounces a year for the first five years and 283,990 over the life at US$544 cash cost and US$648 all-in sustaining cost. B2Gold took over as manager of the joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti from 1 January 2020.
Fekola's indicated resource at December 2019 rose to 110.6 million tonnes at 1.70 g/t for 6.052 million ounces, up 1.29 million ounces or 15.4% on a year earlier after allowing for the 455,810 ounces mined in 2019, and up 79% on the 2015 feasibility estimate after allowing for 1.006 million ounces of cumulative production. Fekola passed its first million ounces produced in late December 2019, two and a half years after start-up.
Year-end drilling across roughly 114,000 metres in Mali kept extending Fekola to the north, converted inferred to indicated inside the pit, expanded the Mamba and Adder saprolite zones and the Mamba sulphide discovery, and returned first results from the Cardinal and FMZ zones close to the Fekola pit.
Drilling extended the shallow high-grade saprolite zone at Mamba, 20km from Fekola, to more than a kilometre of strike and found a wide sulphide zone directly beneath it, which B2Gold read as a possible second Fekola-type deposit. Infill drilling also upgraded 19% of Fekola's inferred resource toward indicated, and B2Gold raised its 2019 Mali exploration budget by US$3 million to US$20.5 million.
Filed the NI 43-101 technical report backing the Fekola expansion preliminary economic assessment announced in March 2019, with no material differences from that announcement. The expansion is a mine fleet increase plus a plant upgrade centred on more ball mill power.
Approved the Fekola expansion on the strength of a preliminary economic assessment, lifting plant throughput by 1.5 million tonnes a year to 7.5 million without a new ball mill or extra power generation. The study was driven by the much larger resource declared in October 2018 rather than by new ground.
Fekola's indicated resource was raised to 92.81 million tonnes at 1.92 g/t for 5.73 million ounces, plus 1.37 million inferred, on 192,000 metres of drilling in 928 holes. Against probable reserves of 3.7 million ounces at the start of production this is a substantial increase, and it underpinned a mill expansion study then in progress.
More West African drill results, including 15.50m at 8.49 g/t north of Fekola, 26m at 5.44 g/t in a new saprolite zone, and 16m at 4.16 g/t at Kiaka. On the strength of them B2Gold decided to build the Fekola mill with a 25% design margin, potentially 5 million tonnes a year against the feasibility 4 million, for an extra US$15-20 million.
The 2015 exploration update extended Fekola 700 metres down plunge below the feasibility pit, with 45.38m at 4.77 g/t in hole FKD_181, and found a new zone near Kiaka at 106m of 2.21 g/t. Fekola remained open along strike to the north and down plunge.
The NI 43-101 technical report itself for the optimised Fekola feasibility study, effective 30 June 2015, prepared with Lycopodium Minerals and Knight Piesold.
Announced the filing of the Fekola technical report and restated its headline figures, confirming no material difference between the report and the June news release: 3.72 million ounces of probable reserves at 2.35 g/t, 350,000 ounces a year at US$418 cash cost for seven years.
The optimised Fekola feasibility study set out a 12.5-year open pit averaging 350,000 ounces a year at US$418 cash cost for the first seven years, on probable reserves of 49.2 million tonnes at 2.35 g/t for 3.72 million ounces, for US$395 million of pre-production capital plus US$67 million of leased fleet. B2Gold started construction and closed a US$350 million revolving credit facility the same day.
Otjikoto construction stayed on budget for a late-2014 start, with all major excavations done, over 16,000 cubic metres of concrete poured and about 1,000 people on site, and more high-grade Wolfshag drill results alongside. The feasibility case is about 141,000 ounces a year at US$525 cash cost for five years and 112,000 ounces at US$689 over the mine life.
The Gramalote preliminary economic assessment in Colombia, on the 51% AngloGold Ashanti and 49% B2Gold joint venture, outlined a 14-year open pit producing 4.445 million ounces in total, 317,500 a year at US$664 cash cost, for US$1,176 million of pre-production capital. At a US$1,351 gold price the after-tax return was only 11.5% with a 4.8-year payback.
Declared a maiden inferred resource for the Wolfshag zone at Otjikoto of 6.8 million tonnes at 3.2 g/t for 703,000 ounces, more than twice the 1.42 g/t average grade of the main Otjikoto pit it sits beside. The zone was traced 1,600 metres down plunge and found only during 2013 drilling, while the mine itself was still under construction.
A further 2013 Otjikoto drilling update: the year's programme totalled 134 holes for 23,602 metres, 80 of them into Wolfshag, with infill work on the northern kilometre of the 1.6 kilometre zone aimed at a maiden inferred resource. Construction stayed on schedule and budget.
Second-quarter production of 82,083 ounces took the half year to 168,848 ounces at cash costs of US$732 an ounce against a US$745 budget, and Masbate reserves were raised from 3.0 to 3.23 million ounces at a better 0.97 g/t. B2Gold also said it had tested the carrying value of its mines at 30 June and found no write-down needed, at a time when much of the sector was impairing.
Drilling at the newly found Wolfshag zone beside the Otjikoto pit in Namibia returned high grades, including 18.85m at 5.84 g/t and 13.55m at 6.83 g/t, from 107 holes for 22,194 metres year to date. B2Gold presented it as potential to expand production and mine life at a project already under construction for a fourth-quarter 2014 start.
