Modern Mining October 2017

MINING News

View of the 5 Mt/a plant at the Fekola mine in Mali. The first gold pour was on 7 October (photo: B2Gold).

Fekola pours its first gold three months early

B2Gold Corp, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and listed on the TSX and NYSE American, reports it has completed construction of the Fekola mill and com- menced ore processing, more than three months ahead of schedule and on budget, at the Fekola mine in Mali. The first gold pour took place on 7 October 2017. The company expects to achieve com- mercial production and produce between 50 000 and 55 000 ounces of gold by the end of 2017. In addition, B2Gold has

announced it has completed a new Life of Mine (LoM) plan for the Fekola deposit that projects higher mill throughput and annual gold production, and lower pro- jected operating costs per ounce and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) per ounce of gold than the original (4 Mt/a) plan in the Optimised Feasibility Study (OFS). The new LoM plan was completed based on the expanded 5 Mt/a mill throughput and takes into account an early start-up, increased processing mate of mineral resources for the Bondi deposit. The results underscore the value of the property in the development of the southern Houndé Belt with new gold dis- coveries potentially being highly accretive to various development scenarios being contemplated, says Sarama. Results are reported for 82 holes totalling 2 800 m of aircore drilling with highlighted downhole intersections including 8 m at 1,50 g/t Au from surface in DJA0061 (100 % oxide); and 27 m at 1,07 g/t Au (EOH) from

throughput, and improved open-pit design and scheduling versus the OFS. The Fekola project has been built using the same construction team that had previously completed four gold mines, on schedule and on budget, for B2Gold’s predecessor company (Bema Gold Corporation) and B2Gold. Prior to construction, the company recognised the exploration potential beyond the initial reserves and decided to build the Fekola mill with a 25 % design factor to surface in DJA0060 (100 % oxide). Sarama’s President and CEO, Andrew Dinning, commented: “We are extremely pleased that the first drill programme on the property following its recent acquisition by Sarama has delivered immediate results. The intersection of broad oxide mineralisa- tion in areas away from the Bondi deposit provides substantial encouragement that further exploration will add to the historical estimated mineral resources of the deposit and we look forward to conducting more extensive follow-up programmes next exploration season.” 

Sarama intersects gold mineralisation near Bondi Sarama Resources, listed on the TSX‑V, has announced that reconnaissance aircore drilling has intersected shallow, oxide gold mineralisation over broad intervals approxi- mately 4 km north-east of its 100 %-owned Bondi deposit in south-western Burkina Faso. The Bondi deposit is of high strategic value, making it the key component of the company’s 100 %-owned ThreeBee project. The drill results demonstrate the poten- tial to add mineral resources to the project, building on the existing historical esti-

4  MODERN MINING  October 2017