Overview
Stage | Production |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
|
Processing |
- Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
- Carbon in column (CIC)
- Carbon in pulp (CIP)
- Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
- Elution
- Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
- Cyanide (reagent)
|
On-Site Camp |
400 person |
Mine Life | 9 years (as of Jan 1, 2020) |
Fekola Mine achieved commercial production on November 30, 2017, one month ahead of the revised schedule and four months ahead of the original schedule. |
Latest News | B2Gold Reports Strong Q4 2020 Total Gold Production of 270,469 Oz, Record Annual Total Gold Production of 1,040,737 Oz... January 20, 2021 |
Source:
p. 8, 13
Company | Interest | Ownership |
Government of Mali
|
20 %
|
Indirect
|
B2Gold Corp.
|
80 %
|
Indirect
|
Fekola S.A.
|
100 %
|
Direct
|
On August 8, 2018, the Company was informed that the Malian Council of Ministers approved the participation of the State of Mali in Fekola S.A. for a total of 20% (being the 10% free carried interest plus the additional 10% interest), through an ordinance and a decree of the Council of Ministers, signed by the President of Mali. In light of such, the Company transferred ownership of 20% of Fekola S.A. to the State of Mali.
Source:
p.25
Summary:
The Fekola deposit is located in the eastern portion of the Paleoproterozoic Kédougou–Kéniéba Inlier which covers eastern Senegal and western Mali. The deposit is considered to be an example of an orogenic style gold deposit. Orogenic gold deposits dominantly form in metamorphic rocks in the mid to shallow crust, at or above the brittle-ductile transition, in compressional settings that facilitate transfer of hot gold bearing fluids from deeper levels. During a geological event, the rapid rise of fluids takes these out of equilibrium with their surroundings, resulting in gold precipitation.
The Fekola deposit is hosted by a moderate to steeply west dipping, folded sequence of marine meta-sediments of the Kofi group, which locally include: argillite and minor pelitic sediments; fine grained turbidites, comprising laminated to thin-bedded siliciclastic siltstone and mudstone; and a heterolithic, mass flow breccia, or conglomerate. Fine grained thin marble units are present as a volumetrically minor rock type inter-bedded with the politic units. Minor mafic volcanic, or volcaniclastic units occur locally in the upper and possibly, lower portions of the hanging wall stratigraphy. Weakly feldspar-phyricfelsic dykes are locally observed. The deposit has been subjected to upper greenschist facies metamorphism.
The Mineralization is broadly continuous and has been traced over a strike extent of approximately 1.5 km, to depths of up to 400 m below surface, with widths to 300 m. The greatest continuity is observed within a high grade shoot (>2 g/t Au) which plunges approximately 13° to the north north west. Mineralization is open at depth, down plunge.
The majority of gold mineralisation in the Fekola deposit occurs in unweathered, fresh rock and is preferentially associated with stringers of pyrite parallel to the foliation and in fine disseminated pyrite. More specifically, the gold mineralisation is associated with fine grained pyrite in tan dolomite-albite altered wall rocks, which locally contain diffuse, often deformed pale grey quartzdolomite-pyrite-albite matrix veins and veinlets. Trace amounts of chalcopyrite have also been observed. The total sulphide content of the deposit is typically less than 5%.
Source:
p.152
Summary:
The selected mining method for the Project is conventional open pit mining with all operations carried out by B2Gold. All values and results reported are on a 100% B2Gold ownership basis.
The open pit mine life is 9.5 years for the development of 320 m deep ultimate pit in a sequence of seven stages (cutbacks). The base case mine production schedule involves the movement of 32 Mtpa material to sustain processing of 4 Mtpa of high grade (~3 g/t gold) ore. The processing of the 14 Mt of stockpiled low grade (~1 g/t gold) ore is scheduled for processing towards the end of the mine life.
As upside potential B2Gold considers that part of the stockpiled low and medium grade ore can potentially be processed in the ROM feed at marginal cost, as the processing plant was designed for the 4 Mtpa nameplate capacity with a 25% (1 Mtpa) design factor.
Source:
p.164
Processing
- Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
- Carbon in column (CIC)
- Carbon in pulp (CIP)
- Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
- Elution
- Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
- Cyanide (reagent)
Flow Sheet:
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:
Commodity | Parameter | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Gold
|
Recovery Rate, %
| 93.8 ^ | 94.2 | 94.7 | 95.4 |
Gold
|
Head Grade, g/t
| 2.91 ^ | 2.16 | 2.58 | 3.01 |
Production:
Commodity | Units | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Gold
|
oz
| 605,000 ^ | 455,810 | 439,068 | 111,450 |
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Tonnes milled
| 6.84 Mt ^ | 6,977,044 t | 5,594,320 t | 1,138,046 t |
Annual milling capacity
| | | 6 Mt | |
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Reserves at December 31, 2019:
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Probable
|
59,500 kt
|
Gold
|
2.22 g/t
|
4,250 koz
|
Indicated
|
110,600 kt
|
Gold
|
1.7 g/t
|
6,050 koz
|
Inferred
|
7,000 kt
|
Gold
|
1.23 g/t
|
280 koz
|
Commodity Production Costs:
| Commodity | Units | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Cash costs
|
Gold
|
USD
|
305 / oz ^
|
375 / oz
|
337 / oz
|
277 / oz
|
Cash costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
380 / oz
|
326 / oz
|
|
Total cash costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
493 / oz
|
430 / oz
|
|
Total cash costs
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
|
442 / oz
|
361 / oz
|
All-in sustaining costs (AISC)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
575 / oz ^
|
|
533 / oz
|
419 / oz
|
All-in sustaining costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
641 / oz
|
520 / oz
|
|
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Financials:
| Units | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Capital expenditures (planned)
|
M USD
| 182 | | | |
Capital expenditures
|
M USD
| | 132.85 | 68.5 | 4.42 |
Revenue
|
M USD
| | 617.45 | 560.52 | 106.93 |
After-tax Income
|
M USD
| | 167.39 | 147.64 | |
Proposed Heavy Mobile Equipment as of March 20, 2020:
Source:
p.161
HME Type | Model | Size | Quantity |
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 Title | Name | Profile | Ref. Date |
Country Manager
|
Mohamed Diarra
|
|
Apr 3, 2020
|
Mill Manager
|
Daniel Clark
|
|
Apr 3, 2020
|
Mining Manager
|
Chris Power
|
|
Apr 3, 2020
|
Project Manager
|
Richard Appiah-Nkansah
|
|
Apr 3, 2020
|
Project Manager
|
Benjamin Scott
|
|
Apr 3, 2020
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
News:
News | Date |
B2Gold Reports Strong Q4 2020 Total Gold Production of 270,469 Oz, Record Annual Total Gold Production of 1,040,737 Oz...
|
January 20, 2021
|
B2Gold Corp. Files Form 40-F and Fekola Technical Report
|
March 20, 2020
|
B2Gold Announces Updated Fekola Mineral Resource Including A Substantial Increase in Indicated Mineral Resources for the Fekola Project in Mali (B2Gold 80%/State of Mali 20%)
|
January 16, 2020
|
B2Gold Announces Positive Exploration Results from the Anaconda Area and the Fekola Deposit and an Update on the Fekola Mine Expansion
|
September 16, 2019
|
B2Gold has Filed a Technical Report for the Fekola Mine...
|
May 13, 2019
|
B2Gold Corp. Announces Very Positive Results from the Expansion Study Preliminary Economic Analysis for the Fekola Mine in Mali (owned 80% B2Gold: 20% State of Mali)
|
March 26, 2019
|
B2Gold Achieves Commercial Production at Fekola Mine in Mali
|
December 4, 2017
|