Name of the Project
Fekola gold project.

Location
The project is located in south-west Mali, on the border between Mali and Senegal.

Client
B2Gold.

Project Description
The project comprises a conventional openpit owner-operated mining operation. The ultimate pit is planned for development in a sequence of six stages or cutbacks.

The final pit design will be about 2 km long, 800 m wide and 320 m deep, with an overall waste to ore (strip) ratio of 4.9:1.

The base case mine production schedule involves the movement of 32-million tonnes of material to sustain the processing of five-million tonnes a year of ore at an average grade of 2.37 g/t gold. High-, medium-, and low-grade ore will be blended throughout the mine life, with high- and medium-grade ore being prioritised to increase produced ounces and project value.

Fekola will produce an average of 374 000 oz/y to 400 000 oz/y in the first five years of production (2018 to 2022) and 365 000 oz/y to 390 000 oz/y over the first seven years of production (2018 to 2024).

A waste-rock storage facility will be built to the west of the openpit, and suitable mine waste will be used for the tailings storage facility rises to the north-east of the pit.

The mill will use a conventional flowsheet, comprising single-stage primary crushing; a semiautogenous grind mill and ball mill grinding circuit with a pebble crushing grinding circuit; leach feed thickening, with thickener overflow treated through a carbon-in-column circuit; leaching followed by carbon-in-pulp adsorption; elution and gold recovery to doré; and cyanide destruction, tailings thickening and disposal circuits.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
$499.7-million.

Duration
The Fekola mine is expected to start production by the end of 2017.

Latest Developments
B2Gold has declared commercial production at its Fekola mine, achieving the milestone four months ahead of the original schedule, and one month ahead of the revised schedule.

In the year to November 30, the mine produced about 80 000 oz of gold, about 158% above its budget of 31 000 oz.

The mine’s stellar performance has prompted B2Gold to substantially lift the mine’s 2017 guidance to between 100 000 oz and 110 000 oz, far surpassing the upper-end of the original guidance of 45 000 oz to 55 000 oz.

Based on current assumptions and updates to B2Gold's current-year guidance and long-term mine plans, B2Gold is now expecting consolidated 2017 gold output of between 580 000 oz and 625 000 oz of gold.

In 2018, consolidated gold output is forecast to increase to between 925 000 oz and 975 000 oz – a year-on-year increase of 58%. The consolidated cash operating costs and all-in sustaining costs for 2018 are forecast to drop to about $525/oz and $800/oz, respectively.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Not stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Fekola remains ahead of schedule, with gold output well above budget in each of the ramp-up months, beating original recovery, grade and plant availability estimates in the optimised feasibility study design.

Contact Details for Project Information
B2Gold, tel +1 604 681 8371, fax +1 604 681 6209 or email investor@b2gold.com.