Summer shipping and construction success keep the Goose Mine on track for first gold pour in Q1 2025.

With a successful summer construction and shipping season, B2Gold Corp. says its Back River gold project in Nunavut remains on pace to pour its first gold early in 2025.

Upon the April completion of its acquisition of Sabina Gold & Silver Corp., which had already made significant progress on early development at Back River, B2Gold immediately invested the resources necessary to get the first mine on this district-scale gold property into production.

Goose, the most advanced project at Back River, is slated to produce 3.34 million oz of gold over 15 years of mining 18.7 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 5.97 grams per metric ton (3.6 million oz) gold.

This will mark the first Canadian mine for B2Gold, which has gold operations in Mali, Namibia, and the Philippines, as well as exploration and development assets in Mali, Colombia, Finland, and Uzbekistan.

"We are excited to add such a high-quality, high grade gold project in a top mining jurisdiction to our global portfolio, and we are thrilled to welcome the exceptional Sabina team into B2Gold," B2Gold President and CEO Clive Johnson said upon the closing of the C$1.1 billion (US$820 million) acquisition of Sabina.

In June, B2Gold announced it is making an initial investment of C$800 million (US$593 million) to get the Goose Mine ready to pour its first gold in the first quarter of 2025, plus C$90 million (US$66.7 million) to accelerate underground development to increase average annual gold production over the first five years to above 300,000 oz.

Delivering the goods

One of the keys to efficiently achieving B2Gold's plan to pour its first gold at Goose in 2025 is ensuring that it maximizes the amount of goods and materials delivered via ship during the summers at the Canadian Arctic gold project.

In preparation for the arrival of 90,000 meters cubed of dry cargo and 24 million liters (6.3 million gallons) of arctic-grade diesel during the 2023 shipping season, B2Gold immediately began reorganizing and enlarging the marine laydown area on Bathurst Inlet north of Goose.

The company is now preparing to build a 163-kilometer (101 miles) winter ice road that will offer the lowest cost option for delivering the equipment, fuel, and supplies needed to support predevelopment activities at the Goose Mine.

In 2023, more than 800 loads were completed along the ice road. With even more deliveries to make this year, B2Gold will begin construction at the middle of the road going toward the port and mine, a strategy aimed at completing the ice road earlier than in previous years.

The company expects 2024 shipments over the winter ice road to begin in February and continue into April.

In addition to ensuring supplies are efficiently delivered via sea and ice road, B2Gold has extended the Back River airstrip to 5,000 feet. The ability to land fully loaded passenger planes at the Goose Project during the 2024 construction campaign will make employee and contractor rotations and supplying the site from Edmonton significantly easier and will further de-risk the project.

Advancing construction, mining

Toward achieving its first gold target, concrete and steel works in the mill area are progressing ahead of schedule.

The first concrete was poured in July, and by the end of September, approximately 40% of the 2023 concrete foundations and pads were completed within the mill area, powerhouse, and truck shop.

More than 2 million kilograms (4.4 million pounds) of structural steel and approximately 500,000 kg (1.1 million lb) of plate steel have already been delivered and are being erected at the Goose Mine site. Enclosure of the mill building, powerhouse, and shop is allowing for work to continue through the colder months.

With the concrete and steel work being completed this year, it is expected that the ball mill will be set in place in December, which is ahead of schedule.

Surface and underground mining at Goose was paused during the quarter so that B2Gold could put in place an emergency response team to ensure safe operations.

B2Gold Corp.

The Goose gold mine mill and camp in September.

The company says the stoppage of mine development to put the emergency response team and equipment in place does not impact the planned timeline to pour the first gold at Back River early in 2025.

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