The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - September 16, 2024
B2Gold expects to complete construction at Goose Mine and pour the first bar of gold at its Nunavut operation by mid-2025.
With construction and development at Goose near completion and the final 2024 supply shipments expected to be offloaded by the end of the month, B2Gold's first mine to be developed on its Back River project in Nunavut remains on track to pour its first gold bar by mid-2025.
The costs to get to the first gold pour at Goose, however, continue to trend higher.
B2Gold now estimates that the total construction and mine development costs to get Goose into production will be C$1.54 billion ($1.13 billion), roughly 23% higher than the C$1.25 billion ($920 million) estimated at the beginning of this year.
More than half of the Goose Mine capital expenditure increases are due to a roughly three-month delay in achieving production, as well as B2Gold deciding to push forward certain mine development investments originally scheduled to be made after commercial production was achieved.
"The acceleration of certain capital items is expected to make the Goose Project a more reliable and de-risked operation upon mill startup," B2Gold penned in a Goose Mine update.
The items B2Gold has decided to accelerate investments in include:
• Purchases of mining equipment to ensure growth in mining rates through 2025.
• Building living quarters at the Bathurst Inlet marine laydown area, which serves as a staging area for summer shipments of equipment and supplies that are delivered to Goose via a 100-mile (160 kilometers) winter ice road.
• Construction of critical infrastructure at Goose, including expansions of warehousing, maintenance, and camp facilities.
• A reverse osmosis plant to optimize water management and lower ongoing operating costs.
Out of the total costs, C$1.19 billion ($880 million) is being invested in site construction, which is about C$140 million ($103 million) higher than previously estimated. B2Gold says the majority of these cost increases are attributed to higher transport costs and increased spending required to fix design deficiencies and replace inadequate equipment that came with the purchase of the Back River project from Sabina Gold and Silver.
The C$350 million ($258 million) balance of pre-gold-production costs at Goose are allotted for mine development, which is C$150 million ($110 million) higher than estimated at the beginning of the year. The company says this increased spending is due to the three extra months of mining before gold production begins, as well as accelerating mining to ensure there are robust stockpiles of ore to sustain consistent mill feed once production gets underway.
With Goose Mine remaining on track to pour its first bar of gold during the second quarter of 2025 and achieving commercial production during the second quarter, B2Gold expects its first mine in Canada to produce between 120,000 and 150,000 oz of gold next year.
With the accelerated investments, B2Gold expects the Goose Mine to pour an average of 310,000 oz of gold per year from 2026 through 2031.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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