The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - January 15, 2025
Trucks deliver fuel shipped to Nunavut's north coast during the summer months over a 100-mile winter ice road to the Goose gold mine.
B2Gold Corp. Jan. 13 announced that it completed all of the Goose Mine construction initiatives it had planned for 2024, and the newest large mining operation in Nunavut is slated to pour its first bar of gold by mid-year.
Goose is the first mine being developed at Back River, a 144,245-acre (58,734 acres) gold-enriched land package in southwestern Nunavut, about 325 miles (520 kilometers) northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
B2Gold gained ownership of Back River through the roughly $820 million (C$1.1 billion) buyout of Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. in 2023.
At the time of the acquisition, Sabina had all the permits to build the Goose Mine and had made significant progress on derisking the operation, including the start of underground mining.
This provided B2Gold with a construction-ready gold mine project in Canada – the company's first in North America.
"We are excited to add such a high-quality, high-grade gold project in a top mining jurisdiction to our global portfolio," B2Gold President and CEO Clive Johnson said upon closing the buyout of Sabina.
Less than two years later, B2Gold is on the cusp of pouring gold at its first Canadian mine.
With the Goose Mine on track to achieve commercial production in the third quarter, B2Gold estimates that the Nunavut operation will produce between 120,000 and 150,000 ounces of gold in 2025. Looking ahead, Goose is currently expected to produce approximately 310,000 oz of gold annually over the next six years, from 2026 through 2031.
Goose's anticipated production over the coming years will become clearer when B2Gold finalizes its initial life-of-mine plan for the operation, which is slated for release by the end of March. This update, which will include the latest mineral reserves, is expected to support a long mine life at Goose.
While getting the Goose Mine into production has been B2Gold's primary objective at Back River, the company also invested roughly $28 million (C$40 million) last year into expanding gold resources and reserves, as well as exploring the district-scale property.
The 2024 Back River exploration included more than 18,000 meters of drilling targeting the Umwelt and Llama deposits, which host the largest and highest grade resources within the Goose mine plan. This drilling, which confirmed the continuity and expanded high-grade mineralization, is being incorporated into mineral reserves and resources that will support the mine plan update currently underway.
B2Gold's heavy investments into expanding Goose gold reserves and exploring the wider Back River project are continuing into 2025.
The company has budgeted $32 million (C$46 million) for this year's exploration at Back River, which includes $21 million ($30 million) designated for expanding and upgrading the deposits at Goose, with the balance for geophysics, mapping, prospecting, till sampling, and roughly 13,000 meters of drilling at some of Back River's more compelling regional targets.
The extensive exploration will help ensure the Goose Mine continues to pour gold well into the future, and the Back River project remains a key B2Gold asset long after the Goose reserves have been exhausted.
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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