Name: Masbate mine.

Location: The Masbate mine is located in the Aroroy municipality on Masbate Island, in the Philippines. 

Holding and Controlling Company: B2Gold acquired its interest in the Masbate mine through its acquisition of CGA Mining in January 2013. Through 100% controlled subsidiaries, B2Gold owns 40% of Filminera Resources Corporation (FRC) and 100% of Philippine Gold Processing & Refining Corporation (PGPRC), the owner of the mineral processing facility. The remaining 60% of FRC is owned by Philippine-registered company Zoom Mineral Holdings. PGPRC and FRC work together contractually and cooperatively to operate the mine. 

Brief Description: Masbate is an openpit mine that is projected to produce up to 190 000 oz/y of gold over the current mine life of 15 years, with the potential to extend beyond current projections given the exploration upside. Ore is sourced from a number of pits that will be developed during the life of the mine. 

Brief History: The Masbate Consolidated Mining Company was formed in 1936, incorporating several of the smaller mines at the project and operated until 1941, with mining ceasing during the war.

There was no significant renewal of mining activity until 1979, when Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation developed the Masbate Gold Operations (MGO), built a mill and associated infrastructure, started an openpit and, later, underground mining. Atlas mined the Masbate gold deposit from April 1980 to 1994. 

In 1995, London Fiduciary Trust, later renamed Philippine Gold (PGO), had a 40% interest in FRC. FRC agreed with Atlas in 1995 to acquire 100% of MGO’s claims and assets. FRC conducted an extensive programme of diamond and reverse-circulation drilling from 1997 to 1998. This was done to upgrade the project’s gold resources to comply with the Joint Ore Resources Committee Code standard for the reporting of ore resources and reserves, and complete a bankable feasibility study (BFS). FRC completed its first in-house feasibility study in December 1997.

A series of corporate transactions in 1999 and 2000 resulted in the eventual acquisition of PGO by Thistle Mining. FRC started a phase of development activities in late 2000 to increase the then current mineral resource and mineral reserve base of the project and to finalise a BFS. CGA acquired 100% of Thistle’s interest in PGO on March 19, 2007.

On January 31, 2013, B2Gold acquired 100% of CGA’s interest in PGO. 

Products: Gold.

Geology/Mineralisation: The oldest rock units recognised on Masbate Island are the pre-Cretaceous Mt Manapao basalt and the Boracay formation, which represent deep marine volcanic flows and the corresponding pelagic capping of an ophiolitic basement respectively. The Late Eocene-Oligocene Mandaon formation unconformably overlies this ophiolitic sequence and is intruded by the Middle Oligocene Aroroy diorite. These rock formations are, in turn, overlain by volcanic and clastic sequences of the Late Oligocene to Early Middle Miocene Sambulawan formation.

Gold mineralisation at Masbate is hosted by quartz and quartz-calcite veining, typical of low-sulphidation epithermal-type gold deposits. Quartz veining is developed in all of the lithologies. Individual mineralised veins can be traced up to 3 km; the known system extends over a strike of more than 16 km from Balete in the south to Pajo in the north. The more significant vein networks vary in width from 1 m up to 20 m. At the Main vein, where different structural orientations intersect, a broad zone of alteration or brecciation often occurs, resulting in mineralised zones of up to 75 m wide. Mineralised vein networks extend to at least 300 m below the topographic surface. In most instances, the total depth of mineralisation has yet to be established. 

Reserves: Total probable reserves as at December 31, 2015, were estimated at 93.99-million grading 0.88 g/t gold.

Resources: Total indicated resources as at December 31, 2015, were estimated at 133.19-million tonnes grading 0.9 g/t gold and inferred mineral resources at 10.83-million tonnes grading 0.84 g/t gold.
Mining Method: Openpit.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Mining is performed with a conventional fleet of hydraulic backhoe configuration excavators, loaders and CAT 777 haul trucks. 

Ore is processed through a standard carbon-in-leach cyanide leach circuit. The plant consists of a single toggle jaw crusher, a 7.2 MW semiautogenous mill and two 3.6 MW ball mills. Tailings are disposed of in an engineered dam 2 km from the processing plant. Gold is produced in doré bars and shipped to a refinery for sales. 

Prospects: Masbate’s mine plan was adjusted in August 2016 to optimise the mine’s development sequence/gold production to 2017 and beyond.

Contact Person: Manager – investor relations and public relations Katie Bromley.

Contact Details:
B2Gold
Tel +1 604 681 8371
Fax +1 604 681 6209
Email: kbromley@b2gold.com
Website http://www.b2gold.com