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Mali
Fekola Mine

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 Location:
172 km S from Kayes, Mali

  Regional Office:
Rue 553, Porte 281 Cite Sans Fil
Bamako
Mali
B.P. 4855
Phone+223-44978840
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
On-Site Camp 400 people
Production Start2017
Mine Life8 years (as of Jan 1, 2021)
On September 10, 2020, the Company announced the successful commissioning of the Fekola mill expansion to 7.5 Mtpa (an increase of 1.5 Mtpa from an assumed base rate of 6 Mtpa), ahead of the scheduled completion date of September 30, 2020.

Fekola Complex feasibility study underway to deliver low capital intensity production growth: Commencing a feasibility level engineering study of stand-alone oxide processing facilities at the Anaconda Area. The study will be based on processing at least 4 million tonnes per annum ("Mtpa") of saprolite and transitional (oxide) resources, with an option to add fresh rock (sulphide) capabilities in the future. Results of this study are expected in the second quarter of 2023. Conceptual analysis indicates that the combined Fekola and Anaconda processing facilities could have the potential to produce more than 800,000 ounces of gold per year commencing as early as 2026.
Latest NewsB2Gold Reports Total Gold Production for Q4 2022 of 367,870 oz, a Quarterly Record for B2Gold; Total Gold Production for FY 2022 of 1,027,874 oz, at the Upper Half of 2022 Guidance...     January 18, 2023


Owners

Source: p. 21
CompanyInterestOwnership
Government of Mali 20 % Indirect
B2Gold Corp. 80 % Indirect
Fekola S.A. 100 % Direct
The State of Mali holds a 20% interest in Fekola S.A., and B2Gold holds the remaining 80% interest.

Contractors

ContractorContractDescriptionRef. DateExpirySource
African Mining Services Drilling AMS currently providing the majority of drilling services. Mar 20, 2020
Capital Drilling Ltd. Drilling Capital Ltd, the leading mining services company, has announced the award of a new drilling contract and the associated purchase of additional drill rigs and other capital equipment. The new contract is an expanded drilling services agreement with B2Gold Corp at the Fekola Gold Mine in Mali, which now runs to the end of 2024. The services being provided on-site now include development (diamond & reverse circulation) and grade control drilling. This follows an initial drilling contract announced at the end of June 2022. To facilitate delivery of the new contract Capital has also purchased 10 rigs from African Mining Services (AMS), part of the Perenti Group. It has also purchased associated equipment and staff accommodation. Sep 6, 2022 2024


Deposit Type

  • Orogenic
  • Saprolite

Source: Source p.23-24

Summary:

The Fekola deposit is an example of a disseminated orogenic gold deposit.

The Fekola Mine is hosted within an inlier of Birimian rocks of the West African craton, termed the Kédougou–Kéniéba Inlier (KKI), located on the border of eastern Senegal, western Mali and northern Guinea. The KKI is a greenstone belt characterized by sequences of approximately north–south-trending volcanic and sedimentary rocks, intruded at various stages by gabbroic suites and calc-alkaline granitoids. The major greenstone units include the Mako, Dialé–Daléma, Falémé and Kofi Series rocks. Two main crustal-scale structures; the Main Transcurrent Zone (MTZ) in the west and the Senegal–Mali Shear Zone system (SMSZ) in the east, bisect the KKI. The Kofi Series hosts significant gold mineralization on the eastern side of the SMSZ and is the primary host to mineralization in the Project area.

Kofi Series lithologies consist of phyllite, thinly-bedded calcareous siltstone-mudstone, marble, mass flow deposits (conglomerate), metapelite and diorite sills cut by quartz–feldspar porphyry dykes and breccia zones. The units have been metamorphosed to greenschist facies.

Three deformation events and corresponding foliation developments control the orientation of folding, shearing and subsequent geometries of gold-bearing zones in the Project area.

Pervasive and texturally-destructive dolomite ± albite ± tourmaline alteration is spatially associated with mineralization.

The Fekola deposit, including the Fekola North Extension, has been outlined along strike for approximately 3 km, can be as much as 200 m in width and extends based on current drilling to at least 440 m depth. Gold mineralization at Fekola is dominantly hosted within bedrock and occurs with fine-grained disseminated pyrite, commonly in association with high strain zones and fold hinges. High-grade mineralization is concentrated in a high-grade shoot (>2 g/t Au) that plunges shallowly to the north–northwest at 14° in the south end, flattening to about 5º around the Fekola North Extension area.

The Fekola deposit remains open along strike and down plunge. Work conducted in 2017–2019 identified narrow zones of hanging wall mineralization. Future exploration efforts will be designed to test for additional high-grade zones along strike to the north of the Fekola deposit where narrower intersections have been encountered at shallow depths, and north-plunging mineralization south of the current pit limits, occurring as stacked lodes.

The Anaconda Area is a collective term for the Anaconda, Adder, Cobra, Cascabel, Mamba and Boomslang zones that are situated about 20 km north of the Fekola Mine. The majority of the mineralization delineated to date is within the Menankoto Sud exploration permit; however, the Bantako Nord prospecting authorization hosts the strike extension of the Anaconda and Mamba structures that are actively being explored.

The combined Anaconda–Adder saprolite zone extends over 5.5 km along strike and up to 500 m wide at the Anaconda zone and up to 200 m wide at the Adder zone. Within these zones, mineralized saprolite varies from 2 m to >40 m thick, averaging 13.5 m true thickness. Mineralization occurs as flat-lying to slightly dipping mineralized zones within saprolite and saprock, and can locally be traced into bedrock. The Adder zone remains open along strike. The Mamba saprolite zone extends to a kilometre along strike and is about 170 m wide, with thicknesses varying from 10 m to >100 m thick, averaging 65 m true thickness. Sulphide mineralization has been discovered down plunge from, and continuous with, the high-grade saprolite zone.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader

Source:

Summary:

The mining method for the Fekola deposit is via conventional open pit mining with the operations strategy based on owner-operator mining equipment and labour.

The base case mine production schedule involves the movement of a total 78.5 Mt/a of ore and waste to sustain a planned throughput rate of 7.75 Mt/a of high-grade ore while stockpiling as much as 5.8 Mt of low-grade mineralization and 8.3 Mt of currently sub-economic mineralization.

The mine design is based on cutback widths between 250–450 m as guided by Whittle analysis, with a minimum mining width of 40 m on all benches except the floor of the ultimate pit, where the widths will be 25 m. Nominal road and ramp widths of 27 m are used where the 90 t capacity trucks operate, and a ramp with of 35 m is used where truck fleets are mixed capacity, or the 180 t capacity trucks are in operation. The lowermost benches of phases are designed with single ramp access. The ramp gradient is designed up to 10%.

Waste storage facility design is based on 15 m vertical lifts with 36º faces and 30 m berms, when initially constructed. Facility location considerations are based on minimising haulage, surface water drainage and area availability. Large berms are designed to facilitate use of equipment during reclamation, as during the reclamation process, the faces will be re-sloped.

The total mine life is nine years for the development of a 410 m deep ultimate pit in nine stages to support nine years of processing.


Crushing and Grinding
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Processing

  • Carbon re-activation kiln
  • Smelting
  • Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
  • Carbon in column (CIC)
  • Carbon in pulp (CIP)
  • Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
  • Elution
  • Filter press
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)

Flow Sheet: Source
Source: Source

Summary:

The treatment plant design incorporates the following unit process operations:

• Single stage primary crushing with a gyratory crusher to produce a crushed product size of 80% passing (P80) of 150 mm.

• Crushed ore stockpile with a nominal 10,000 tonne live capacity to provide 20 hours of operation at design plant throughput. During extended periods of up to three days for primary crusher equipment maintenance, ore from the dead part of the stockpile is reclaimed by an excavator or dozer to feed the grinding circuit.

• Crushed ore from the stockpile is normally reclaimed by apron feeders positioned under the stockpile to feed the grinding circuit.

• The grinding circuit is a SABC type, which consists of an open circuit SAG mill, pebble crusher for SAG mill discharge oversize and a closed circuit ball mill to produce a P80 grind size of 75 µm.

• Quicklime from a silo is added onto the SAG mill feed conveyor along with the crushed pebbles. Sodium cyanide solution is added to the SAG mill feed chute to start the gold leaching process.

• Hydrocyclones are operated to achieve a cyclone overflow slurry density of 25% solids to promote better particle size separation efficiency. Subsequently, a leach thickener is included to increase slurry density to the leach circuit, minimise leach tank volume requirements, reduce overall reagent consumption, and separate gold dissolved by cyanide addition to the grinding circuit.

• Carbon columns (CIC) are included to recover gold already dissolved in the grinding circuit. The leach thickener overflow stream is pumped to this carbon adsorption circuit.

• Leach circuit with five tanks to achieve the required 24 hours of residence time at design plant throughput. Carbon-in-pulp (CIP) circuit consisting of six stages is a carbon adsorption circuit for recovery of remaining gold dissolved in the leaching circuit.

• Zadra elution circuit with gold recovery to doré. The circuit includes an acid wash column to remove inorganic foulants from the carbon with hydrochloric acid. The single elution circuit is common for both carbon adsorption circuits.

• Carbon regeneration kiln to remove organic foulants from the carbon with heat. This piece of equipment is common for both carbon adsorption circuits.

• Cyanide destruction circuit using SO2 and air to reduce the WAD Cyanide level in the tailings discharge stream to an environmentally acceptable level.

• Tailings thickener to increase slurry density for water recovery prior to tailings discharge to the tailings storage facility.

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter202220212020201920182017
Gold Recovery Rate, % 94.7 ^94.294.394.294.795.4
Gold Head Grade, g/t 2.15 ^2.052.992.162.583.01
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Production:

CommodityUnits202220212020201920182017
Gold oz 570,000-600,000 ^567,795622,518455,810439,068111,450
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics20212020201920182017
Tonnes milled 9,143,022 t6,872,829 t6,977,044 t5,594,320 t1,138,046 t
Annual milling capacity 7.5 Mt7.5 Mt6 Mt6 Mt

Reserves at December 31, 2021:
Mineral Reserves are reported above a cut-off grade of 0.65 g/t Au.
Mineral Resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.40 g/t Au.

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Probable 62,000 kt Gold 1.86 g/t 3,710 koz
Indicated 102,800 kt Gold 1.51 g/t 4,980 koz
Inferred 10,100 kt Gold 1.23 g/t 400 koz

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits202220212020201920182017
Cash costs Gold USD 530 / oz ^   449 / oz   320 / oz   375 / oz   337 / oz   277 / oz  
Cash costs (sold) Gold USD 439 / oz   320 / oz   380 / oz   326 / oz  
Total cash costs (sold) Gold USD 586 / oz   460 / oz   493 / oz   430 / oz  
Total cash costs Gold USD 442 / oz   361 / oz  
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold USD 860 / oz ^   765 / oz   599 / oz   641 / oz   520 / oz  
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold USD 533 / oz   419 / oz  
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Financials:

Units202220212020201920182017
Capital expenditures (planned) M USD 117  
Capital expenditures M USD 110.6  184  132.8   68.5   4.4  
Revenue M USD 1,024  1,113  617.5   560.5   106.9  
After-tax Income M USD 263.2  411.3  167.4   147.6  



Proposed Heavy Mobile Equipment as of March 20, 2020:
Source: Source p.161
HME TypeModelSizeQuantity
Dozer (crawler) Caterpillar D9R 5
Dozer (crawler) Caterpillar D10R 6
Dozer (rubber tire) Caterpillar 834 4
Dozer (rubber tire) Caterpillar 844 3
Drill 14
Excavator Caterpillar 6020B 200 t 5
Grader Caterpillar 16M 3
Grader Caterpillar 18M 2
Loader Caterpillar 992 1
Loader Caterpillar 988K 3
Shovel Caterpillar 6040/6040 FS 400 t 3
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 777D 90 t 47
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 789D 180 t 26
Truck (water) 3

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
Deputy Mine Manager Grant Jukawics LinkedIn Apr 11, 2022
Maintenance Superintendent Matthew Knight LinkedIn Apr 11, 2022
Mill Manager Daniel Clark LinkedIn Apr 11, 2022
Mining Manager Chris Power LinkedIn Apr 11, 2022
Project Manager Benjamin Scott LinkedIn Apr 11, 2022
Technical Services Manager Chris Cusack LinkedIn Apr 11, 2022


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Press Release 2022
Annual Information Form 2021
Financial Review 2021
Management Discussion & Analysis 2021
Other 2021
Press Release 2021
Financial Review 2020
Management Discussion & Analysis 2020
Technical Report 2020
Annual Information Form 2019
Financial Review 2019
Management Discussion & Analysis 2019
Press Release 2019
Annual Information Form 2018
Management Discussion & Analysis 2018
Press Release 2018
Annual Information Form 2017
Corporate Presentation 2017
Management Discussion & Analysis 2017
Press Release 2017
Annual Information Form 2016
Management Discussion & Analysis 2016
Annual Information Form 2015
Feasibility Study Report 2015

News:

NewsDate
B2Gold Reports Total Gold Production for Q4 2022 of 367,870 oz, a Quarterly Record for B2Gold; Total Gold Production for FY 2022 of 1,027,874 oz, at the Upper Half of 2022 Guidance... January 18, 2023
B2Gold Announces Exploration Drilling Results from the Fekola Complex that Continues to Expand Gold Mineralization in Several Zones... December 13, 2022

Aerial view:

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