Q1 2023 B2Gold Corp Earnings Call

May 10, 2023

Speaker 1: You.

Speaker 1: Carla's

Speaker 2: you

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the B2 Gold First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. For those of you who are not familiar with the speakers presentation, there will be a question and answer session.

To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Clive Johnson, President, CEO and Director. Please go ahead.

Good morning, afternoon, wherever you are everyone. Thanks for joining us. Today, of course, to talk about the Beechu Gold Q1 2023.

operational and financial results. We had another strong quarter of operating performance which led to some very positive financial results.

Mike Cinnamon, our CFO , is going to walk you through that. And then Bill Lidle, our CEO , is going to...

Update is on the Back River Project, the status of that. I'll talk a bit about the...

for cooler complex expansion projects looking on them that can or seem to be the expiration. We'll talk to us a little bit about expiration plans.

for Back River, which just approved the large exploration budget, and he'll also update the progress in terms of exploration in the Focola complex. And then we'll open up for questions after that, so with that I'll hand it over to Mike Drexel.

Thanks, Clive.

So I'll walk you through the operating results first in the cash flows.

On the revenue side, we sold 4,000 ounces more than we'd budgeted, so a total of 249,000 ounces from our operating mines. And the good news is we had an average price of just over $1,900 for the queue.

When we budgeted, we had 1,700, so we're very happy to see that 200 bucks plus an ounce. Obviously, gold prices continue to increase as you know to today.

On a production site, from all the operations including our share of caliber, 267,000 ounces.

and from our three operating mines, 251,000 ounces, both of which were 5,000 ounces, were ahead of budget.

5,000 ounces has spread pretty evenly across the three operations.

So, Focola had 166,000 ounces. Production was higher, we expected it to be higher because we had that favorable higher grade material coming from phase six of the Focola pet.

the grade was 2.47 grams per ton which is right on budget.

Then Ms. Batty, Ms. Batty was pretty much as planned. The grade this year is lower than it was in the comparable quarter last year. As we know it, the peak rate was 0.95 grams per 10.

announced it's slightly ahead of budget.

Again, we expected, we were in some of the higher grade portions of Wolfshag Underground Mine. I'll remind you to for our jacodas, we looked through the...

to the balance of the year. It's more weighted to the second half of the year as we get into more high-grade material in phase four of the Ojokoto Pit plus continued high-grade ore from Wolfshank.

But overall, a good result of production pretty much on target slightly ahead of budget.

Real good results production pretty much on target, slightly ahead of budget. Thanks, Rob.

We actually did considerably better than budget. So from all on a consolidated basis from all operations, total cash costs were $600 an ounce.

which is $85 ahead of budget, and if we take our three operating mines...

$576 an ounce which was

$26 an ounce which was $88 lower than budget

and

So looking at the individual operations for cola, they were two main reasons why I was significantly, it was $60 lower than budget.

One was that we mined less material in the period due to some of the tire can work in conditions in face fix.

including only having one ramp available for college, which has now been resolved in April of this year. And then we also had lower fuel costs. The mining tonnets shortfall, it expected to be caught up over the balance of 2023. On Madbadi.

Again, we were $176 an ounce below budget. That was a function of slightly higher than budget goal production and quite significantly lower than budget diesel and heavy fuel oil.

Costs.

We haven't we visited any of the the lower fuel costs for the bounce of the year. We've just some of the little

state where we budgeted it at, but certainly current indicators are definitely the prices have dropped a bit.

While the forward curve is a forward curve and in backwardation anymore for fuel, it's pretty flat. So we may see some benefit as we roll through the valves of the year in the cost rate.

For the all-in sustaining costs, total and including our share of calibre, $1060, which was $146 lower than budget and same story from...

R3 standalone operating mines. And it's really a function of the lower cash offering cost as I mentioned. And then timing of CapEx.

We've seen CapEx for Q1 was below budget. The sustaining CapEx was about 10 million below what we budgeted just for the timing and things like the completion of the TFF raises at Fakola and then some of the other fleet and cooking rebels. That's just timing. We expect to see all of that reverses. We go through the balance of the year.

quite generally, but we are continuing with polar regional development.

We're now, because we've done so much drilling on that for color regional area, since we did the original anacondit area, resource that we wanted to...

to take those results and put them into a new resource for Anaconda. So that resource can take a bit longer to produce with a result of that FACOLA regional phase two mill. Studies now expected in the fourth quarter of 2023.

On the Ojikoto side, we continue to develop Wolfshank Underground, we continue to explore there. The Ojikoto pet itself is scheduled to ramp down in 2024 and wind up in 2025 based on our current plans.

On the OJ coderside, you know, we continue to develop both Shag Underground, which continue to explore there. The OJ coderpet itself is scheduled to ramp down on 24 and wind up in 2025 based on our current plans, and we disclose that.

On the Grand Malati project, as announced, we are undertaking a joint sales process with our partner HGA. That process is moving along. It seems to be good and trust doesn't phase one. We're still on phase one of the process.

We expect to wrap that part up within probably next two months, month to two months, with the goal that we'll wrap up this whole process before year end.

And on Sabine, I think Bill's going to give an update, but we have some disclosures in there about the acquisition of Sabine. We haven't put in the purchase price allocation yet. We'll do that in Q2 when we publish our results. Bill's going to talk about currently what we're doing there. But one thing I will mention is that subsequent to the completion of the transaction, we did revisit...

a fair amount of the financing obligations that the financing plan is to be put in place. And so we bought out the off-take agreement.

Well, over 100% of it, so that's gone. We've also canceled that facility that they had and the goal free pace that they set up. And in addition, as we were prevented through under the terms of the agreement, we bought out one-third of the streaming arrangement that was there with Wheaton Precious models. So, that's total cost of 111 million.

cash, which you'll see come through in Q2, but it does let us really focus on financing with the facilities and the financing capacity that we have available through our own cash loads under our debt facilities.

and also allow us to benefit more from future upside, which

As we've mentioned many times when we discuss, back wherever we see a lot of upside there.

On the earnings side, when you translate all those operating results, the trivial earnings to shareholders just under 86 million are $0.08 per share. On the earnings side, when you translate all those operating results, the trivial earnings

And a couple of comments on the cash flow.

So Casulo, not Casulo from operating activity 203 million or 19 theft per share or as we've also disclosed in the news release. Casulo before working capital 223 million or 21 cents per share so very solid Casulo quarter.

Of course, the gold price help as well as some of those lower costs that I mentioned. On the finance side, we continue to pay a dividend at the same rate for SANS US for sure. It was an annualized 170 plus million per year, pre-Sabena, but now with the additional SABENA shares those of you who have issued the SABENA acquisition, and you think we'll see that jump up to somewhere around 2-10.

210 plus 210 million.

On the CAPEX side, like a 131 million spat in the queue, in total we were about 42 million under budget. TAN of that was floor sustaining capital of their mentioned already, and N32 million was just lower non-sustaining capital, which was all related just to the timing of the underground development development for polar regional. Again, these are all priming, I think, didn't...

On the CAPEX side, like 131 million spat in the queue, in total we were about 42 million under budget. TAN of that was floor sustaining capital of their match and already, and N32 million was just lower non-sustaining capital, which was all related just to the timing of the underground development development for polar regional. Again, these are all priming, I think, and we think they're all going to reverse in the queue. Advertiser.

Also what I are in full year and the other thing I'd highlight there is that as we disclosed we're excited to get going on the exploration site at Backriver so we've just approved an extra 20 million dollars that wasn't in the original exploration budget. That budget total is now 84 million for the year with 20 million really focused on additional drilling that we plan to do at Backriver and I think it next weekend

and give you an update on that in a second. Overall, we finished the Period 600-73 million in the bank and not been drawn in the revolver and really minimal debt on the balance sheet, although not a few leases.

And I think anything 5-1 else will be touch on there. Really good. Spoke the highlights. I think that's the most.

most of the time I catch you again. Okay, thank you.

Okay, so we're going to talk to you about how we're doing it. We're doing a goose abuse attempt not with the ride, special international term. One set of a go.

Yes, so thanks, Clyde. Mike covered the operational stuff quite in depth, so I'm not going to talk about any of that, but just quickly talking on the...

actually putting out a VA Q2 that's been moved to Q4 and it is the based on some of the explorations success we've been seeing but I would like to expand upon that a little bit. I don't think it's just the exploration success. As you know the Anaconda Phase 1 or Phase 2 study is really about the oxides but they're also having success on the sulfides.

So what we're talking about doing now is more of an integrated kind of regional complex where we look at everything and we give you an update not only for what would be happening at the Oxide plant but also what would be happening as far as sulfides and where they would go. So all that has to come into play and we're talking about putting that out in Q4 this year. And then we get to what's currently going on there, the Phase 1.

finishing the study and building phase two of that's what we stood so chose to do. That project remains on track. So basically all of the roads are in now. We're just finishing up the final culverts. The infrastructure is being built. We have received our ESIA.

For the Phase I study, we're currently waiting for them to...

finalize our feasibility review and issue the exploitation license. So what I can say is that really I'm going to say right at the end of Q3 beginning of Q4, you're going to start seeing how it's just come out of there. And what I will tell you is that always remember what we said is just because that's what the study says, that's...

Not necessarily what we're going to do. We're going to take the highest grade ounces, the highest NPV ounces in process those firsts. So what I can say is that right now there's about 18,000 ounces we're talking about in 2023, which would come out of the Anaconda Phase 1.

We're going to take the ounces, the highest grade ounces, the highest NPV ounces in process those firsts. So what I can say is that right now there's about 18,000 ounces we're talking about in 2023, which would come out of the Anaconda Phase 1. Anything else on that?

That's good. Okay, so Sabina, everyone's aware of the Sabina closed kind of in the third week of April .

Since then we've been extremely busy. Some of the questions that we got early on when people were asking about the deal was, did we think that we could bring the V2 gold construction team back together to build this one, and I'll say with Planner that almost to a person.

Everybody jumped at the opportunity to come back. So we do have all of the necessary people in place to include Kieran Lachgren and Tom Carter, who've been with us really for the last 20 years, building all of our projects in Far East Russia and Africa and Nicaragua. They're busy assembling the rest of the team and I will say that we've had very few people.

They want to come back. But on top of that, I think it's really important to highlight that the people that were at Sabina, the people that were running the site and kind of managing these contractors. And the site have also agreed to come across and work with our team together. So now what we've got is we've got a very good...

historical knowledge of the site. Certainly the people that were in charge of logistics have been critical in both last year and this year they're with us and we've got our our bill team to add onto that. So I feel very strongly that we have the right team that can certainly execute this project and we're still calling for it to be...

on time. So we're still talking about a Q1 2025 commission. As far as the logistics, I think everyone's aware, this is the logistics project even more than the mining project. The winter road this year wasn't success, but while they were saying that they needed that they had 1200 containers.

They had 600 which were around the critical path. They brought in more than 800 containers this year. So we have all of the necessary equipment and supplies to do all of the key things that need to be done in order to keep us on the schedule. So really the intent of this year is to get the camp up.

which they're already doing. I can say with confidence. This morning I talked to them, the kitchen is already up and they're getting ready to run power into the kitchen so then the wings would come up next. And so we're seeing kind of a July one day for the opening up of the kitchen or of the first phase of camp. And then over the next couple weeks after that they'll finish it up into August .

We have to pour concrete this year. That's concrete for the warehouse, the mill building, and potentially the powerhouse. All of that concrete is on site. All the steel for those facilities are on site. And we're currently scheduling in which order we want to do them.

As far as orders for 2023-2024, C-List, Slashwinter Road, that all remains on schedule. We've got a very good job of integrating the former Sabina team with the B2Go construction team. They were in the office last week, finalizing orders. Everything has to be on the C-Lift and heading up towards...

The marine lay down area in kind of August September , so by July everything has to be at the point where they consolidate. All of that remains on schedule at this point. And then we're actually shooting for an earlier opening date of the winter road next year. We have as many as 2,000 containers we want to drag up the road next year. So we're talking about an early February date and we've worked with the Sabina team.

the former subunit team to make that happen and what we've done is we've brought in more trucks.

We brought in more equipment to operate to open up the road from two directions, actually three directions from the middle and from both ends. And we're hoping that it'll get open as I said earlier, like the first week of February .

to open up the road from two directions, actually three directions from the middle and from both ends. And we're hoping that it'll get open as I said earlier, like the first week of February .

What else can I say on that as far as. The as far as additional logistics, we have extended the airstrip, so we're able to bring stuff on directly on the site with something as big as a 727 and overall that project remains on schedule. I will tell you that. Before the end of June .

is our intent to update the budget based on what we have put forth and come up with what our final cost is going to be. So we continue as far as things that are happening off site. We continue to maintain.

Very good relationships with the INUQ community, the CONTICMEAT Association in Nunavut. We just attended a conference up there. I don't know if Clyde wants to talk about it a little bit more, but in general, because we maintained all of the Sabina key personnel to include massive Picard and Andrew Moore, uh...

Those people have really continued the bridge of that relationship and we maintain very strong relationships within you and community.

Sure. Yeah, I'll just touch on the key. We went to the symposium. Even though none of it, the mining symposium, the time was really good because we just closed the Semina deal. So we were able to introduce everyone there to be too gold and talk about the fact that you know some of our experiences.

the rest of the days, as Bill mentioned, a construction for some of us, go back to that in terms of knowledge about knowledge about the physical challenge in the North. So that was very well received. And I also talked to them a bit about personal home coming for me, having...

20 some years ago, but I like it on a claim suit or an extra banner in the UConn. So I'm sitting back to the North as well. But I think the most important message that we brought to them was cargenuity, as Bill mentioned, for some of the great work that we've been doing with the Landon-Muss-Kittigmeon group. Continue on with some...

Very good CSR projects that we'll be able to increase the budget on that. It was beachable, so financial strength, but the big message to us that we were as those that maintain the schedule, that's the BNF for Ford.

That was a great relief to many people because unfortunately, I've never even got a needle to take over Team Black's head.

run the mine for a while. Hope Bay and then decided to shut it down and go back to Joey. So I think they were very concerned whether or not our big company might come in, bigger company might come in and do the same thing. When we did the acquisition, when we started looking at Savina, I made it very clear to Bill that it was up to him and his team to decide the schedule that we could live with and I did say to Bill.

that if we thought we needed more time, I thought our shovels would understand that to get it right. But the good news is, with the quality we're done by Savina, very good work and Bruce McLeodon is a tire team. We were able to, after lots of scrutiny and tremendous amount of total justice, conclude that we could in fact maintain the schedule as Bill has said. So great symposium.

that we went to and frankly it's nice to be investing in Canada. We're not a Ford investor on this one and I think as long as we can do what we've done for a long time to live on the promises we made in the North I think we'll have a great success and great relationships with them.

the local communities. So it was very positive. Triple also talking potentially with a new legal army, somethings we can combine this as two companies. I do a bit to do some projects together, maybe some CSR to a project, etc. So I think it's a real positive view of our from our perspective of going north and also

of the community and the industry. We felt very welcome, but used to deliver, as always, on the promises that we made.

very welcome the keys to deliver as always on the promises that we've made.

I think with that I'll get to have a king to talk a bit about this new budget and maybe you can talk a little bit about Bix, about the team, because we're not only inherited

Some great people and whether it be the Indigenous relationships, but also in terms of construction, etc. But obviously you can tell me what you think of the...

of us joining forces with the existing team from Sabina the exploration side. Thanks, Bob. Yes, absolutely. The quality of the work that's being done by the...

the exhibition came as—

It's a Beno Game, it's top class.

And I'm very happy to say that we've virtually retained almost the entire team. So we'll be hitting the ground running for sure and supplemented by people from our existing B2GOL team as well.

The budget has increased by, oh, our global budget has marked mention it has increased by 20 million US.

That is to put it into context, I think.

Sabina had in the order of around 5 million Canadian I think on average.

as an expiration budget. So this is this 20 million 27th Canadian.

So this is this 20 million 27th Canadian is a fivefold increase.

to be spent in six months, it's a 10 times increase. So we intend to hit the ground really hard.

So, you know, bringing in additional drinks, we plan to complete at least 25,000 meals.

of diamond drilling. The allocation of that drilling will be on the Goose project.

which comprises a number of deposits. But a lot of that will be on the umoiled deposit, which is the highest grade and also the biggest contributor to the resource.

Some of that drilling will be in full to improve the density of drilling to optimize the underground planning, underground mining planning, but also to extend what is clearly the open-ended mineralization on each of the...

four deposits on the Goose project itself. That's going to be about $15 million of the budget. There's another $5 million that we intend to spend on what are clearly top-class projects.

goal opportunities in this bad-addined formation hosted withrologies.

George, which is about 50 kilometers to the northwest of Goose, is where there is a resource there already and over 40 targets on that license. Hello carriers on this claimed box.

the northwest of Goose is where there is a resource there already and over 40 targets on their license, low on those claim blocks.

Sabina had been drilling there this year, completed drilling on two weeks ago, the current program, we'll get back in there and drill it to orange. And just to highlight, I've just mentioned two projects there. Within this 80 kilometer belt is cold district.

We also have another three project areas, Boulder, Dell and Boot, that have had economic intersections of mineralization.

certainly be pulling up on as well, over time. I think that covers back rubber.

just to get back to Mali. Mali had the line share of the budget this year of a $34.5 million.

And that really is a record of mouth for Mali for sure. We have more rigs turning there, more people busy in expression than we've ever had.

We've already completed over 100,000 meters of drilling in Mali. A lot of that, as Bill mentioned earlier, has been focused on

Infold drilling in the saprolite, so moving more material into the indicated category to support the studies that are going into.

the Phase 2 mould options that we're looking at in the area. That's, that's, that, the PINFOR drilling is complete and we're back.

Currently updating the resource have to complete that certainly before the end of this quarter and it will feed into the timeline that both Bill and Mike mentioned earlier.

We haven't only been doing info. As you would have seen in the press release, I think earlier this month.

We've had some significant success in cell files on the anticonular properties.

significant success in cell files on the anticonular properties.

And remember, we hit actually our highest

highest or the biggest intersection we've ever had across in West Martin. 8.6 grams over 46 meters.

This supports another hit in the same zone, the Mubba main zone, of over 8 grams of nearly 16 meters. So the salt finds potentially very certainly not over yet, for sure. And there are plenty of more.

intersections that would tend to support the potential for underground and certainly extension of the sulphide a lot of the pets into the sulphides.

tend to support the potential for underground and certainly the extension of the sulphide a lot of the pets into the sulphide that's at the Anticondic project.

Additionally, you'll recall that we acquired the Baccalaubi license which is essentially the piece of the jacksaw sitting between the two anticonter properties in Med 90, where our proponent line is located. We've extended the drilling onto...

onto the bacolobi license.

Particularly one of the snakes, Cobra, has shown to be extent significant for over two and a half kilometers of additional strike on the baccalaubis side of the fence. That's within the arc side. That'll certainly contribute as well.

In the last press release, we also named a, or indicated a new zone, which is further to the south, but still on baccalaureate, which we call time pan, and we've had some pretty good intersections there as well.

press release, we also named a or indicated a new zone which is further to the south but still on baccalaureate which we call time pan and we've had some some pretty good interactions there as well.

Yeah, for instance, 28 meters is 1.8, 23 at over 4 grams, and that's really just getting started. I think a lot more work planned for Mali, keeping those rigs and those people busy.

I guess those are the highlights. I forgot something. Can I jump back in?

One of the things that we've been asked to do as we've taken on this project is you know B2 does things a little bit different than the schedule of the day or the way they were going to do it. So we've been asked to generate kind of a new capital schedule and a new operating cost profile.

It is our intent to have those done in Q2. So internally by the end of this month, but I think by the end of Q2 we're ready to talk about. That also includes, as Sabina was talking about, they were talking about bringing some ounces forward from the underground. We are currently revisiting the underground, both the methodology.

And the schedule and we will include that in our next update on how far we think we can push this thing as it comes up out of the ground. Okay. One of the studies that will be subpoenas to start, we'll pick up as the study of potential for wind power. Obviously we're a leader in the industry and solar power of what we've done with the Navy and Mali. But we're having a hard luck. There's no assumptions for anything currently. We're waiting for a study to be done. But...

There is precedent for it in the north of Canada. That could be an interesting opportunity in terms of reducing emissions, but also could have a positive.

effect on the cost of their arm as well. In terms of strategy going forward, we are very happy with the growth profile. We have right now in terms of looking at...

be two stages of expansion, for colocomplex and also of course the exciting project that is. And a lot of that is because of what other reasons we did the acquisition and our coupling couple you know.

to accomplish these things subject to a study on this, on the second note, and I'm calling this, of course, an extraordinarily strong financial position. And if you look back in our history, the strategy really, if you put it quite simply, is that our strong operational and, therefore, financial performance for years, has fueled growth by our ability to do creative acquisitions.

build minds ourselves and also do a lot of exploration work. So I think that's one of the keys to our success. But we're also very focused groups. So we first talk about the sequencing of the expansion of the coal of the good form of the second mill. How that works within the first expansion, which is tracking, which has happened happening now.

for coal and then goose construction and then potentially building the second mill. So we're not going to build two mines and mills at the same time, but we said that. But also we're not going to be looking now as hard at M&A development project M&A. For that same reason, we're going to stay very focused on the growth profile we have now. In the company we will continue to look at expiration opportunities, something we've been very good at, and that will include not only.

setting strategy. We think also offering to these groups that have done exploration teams offering. If there's any systems we can provide in terms of looking at their plan exploration plans and centers. So a lot of junior exploration companies unfortunately they're struggling these days even with going very higher. So for a lot of these companies I think it's quite attractive to have a friendly

shareholder, I'm not sure I bear with anybody, but a friendly shareholder would be too cold. So we're going to be exploring those kind of alternatives as well as we go for it. But the thing we're going to continue to do as we've done for many years is be very focused on what we're now on the acquisition to be done and the opportunity we have to do the program with the company. Michael, do any of the things that we should add to the other?

Okay, well I think with that we'll put them for questions. Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by when we compile the Q&A, Rochter.

Our first question comes from the line of Ovey and Tubby from Scotiabank.

Thanks operator. Hi, Clive and B2 team again, congrats on the beat in the strong start of year. And really great to see the development of back river progressing well. Just a couple of questions for me, just starting off with Anna Konda, phase two study.

Now, it looks like based on exploration success, especially on the sulfides, you know, you pushed out the study to Q4. Now maybe this is a question for Bill as well. Would you look to change the scope of the project with larger processing facility or?

Any color you can provide as to the size and scope of the project kind of looking going forward? Yeah, sure, surely. Once again, it's never enough to put a second male on. Now it needs to be bigger. The harder bands are stronger. So, it's pretty low-doll. But what I would say is that we're not definitely not changing the scope of the

second mill that we're looking at a 4 million ton per atom oxide mill, but as you know, as B2 often does, we did put in capacity to expand and or eventually add a sulfide circuit if necessary. That's all being looked at. But really what we're talking about is remember, you're going to have this very interesting situation if you build the mill there.

because it only takes oxides, the sulfides have to come south to picola. So instead of kind of cheating you and saying, okay, I've got this great oxide mill and then my sulfides, as you know, in the long term will go and start to decrease. I'll be able to tell you, listen, my life of mine is extended because of sulfides, which means I've now got two options for oxides.

Don't forget we've got Indoko, we've got back a little bit of the whole concept is to roll a thing into a regional play and really show you what this complex can do. Thanks, Bill. And just start then. Clive, let me imagine that as B2 is want to do from time to time, they get all of the decision makers in a room with the technical people. And they beat these things about the head. Clive calls them swirls. And we just had one yesterday and.

It was an interesting swirl in the sense that all the options put on the table seem very good. It's just a question of which way you want to go inside of a larger corporate strategy.

Thanks, Bill. And just any sort of color you can provide right now, how things are moving along with the underground ad piccola or underground component of piccola.

Yeah, I can talk about it a little bit and then I'll turn it over to Dennis Stanberry, who was just there working with the regulators to get the permits. But I'll tell you, remember the exploration project, or sorry, the underground project is an exploration project at this time. With the concept of to develop it and get down to the face so you can drill it off.

and put the resource into reserves. So we're basically, we've done it stepwise where all the surface infrastructure had been approved already and now we're up to really putting in the portal and all the supporting infrastructure for that. So Dennis maybe you want to say a few words so that you were just over there?

Yeah, we met with the regulators last week. Had a good session with them. They've come back with a very, very short list of questions. We're putting that together right now this week to submit. And with the tone of their letter, it sounds like we will have the permit to go full speed on that underground property next week.

We've been in luck, that's what we hope, that they're ready in the pit. They're getting down to the final level. They've prepared the face for the first blast. Axis is quite good. It looks very good. It's an excellent job. There's a work looks very, very first blast. So hopefully we'll be kicking off the first rounds and having an underground very, very shortly.

We hope that they're ready in the pit. They're getting down to the final level. They prepared the face for the first blast. Access is quite good. It looks, Bird Cut is doing an excellent job there. The work looks very, very first class. Hopefully, we'll be kicking off the first rounds and heading underground very, very shortly. Thanks, guys.

Perfect. Thanks for the color, Agents. And then maybe moving a little bit to which go to, I believe open pit mining is ending in 2024. Underground kind of ending around in 2026.

Do you right now see potential to increase, extend that underground mine life at Ojikodo or pretty much wrapping up Ojikodo around in the next couple of years?

So the answer is yes. I think we've always said that there's a resource down plunge that has to be drilled off from underground, which we're getting down to that. We'll start to do that now. We've always cautioned that we're not going to extend the overall life of mine. Of course, you'll extend the underground, but it's unlikely that we'll find enough resource at that spot.

to extend the life of mine. We are onto something which has potential, which I think is a bit preliminary to talk about. But at the end of the day, the existing underground will not extend the life of mine. It might extend the ounce profile, but we're certainly digging around, and we're onto something we think could do that somewhere else. Mopek's an expiration, so he can talk about it. Yeah, OK, yeah.

Yeah, about 3 kilometers south of the Ocicotto pit on what we call, hopefully the Ocicotto feeder structure. We've hit...

some interesting intersections. These are at, definitely will have to be mined underground. The question here is whether we can actually get these to hang together of a sufficient.

strike extent to actually build up a resource that would warrant

actually build up a resource that would warrant

basically developing down to those levels. It is only sage is all said, it's still very encouraging. Thanks, thanks for the color and well as well. And maybe I'll stop there and jump back in the queue, but thanks for taking my questions.

That's what it is. Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question goes in the line of Ralph Proffetti from 8th Capitol.

Thanks operator. Good afternoon everyone. Just a couple questions on the success that we've seen on the logistics side. Is there an ability to take advantage of some of the sequencing on delivery of material, critical material between the ice road and the sea lift?

Just wondering if that's being taken advantage of in order to sort of stay ahead of schedule. And then sort of a follow on question from that, if you're talking about an early opening in February , can you put that in context for me how sort of the 2022 season figured out in terms of the timing and just sort of what's behind that.

more opportunistic approaches? There's actually been work done on the ice road that's opening up that window a little bit more positively? So the answer, I'll start in reverse, the answer's yes. So the logistics question, at the end of the day, as you know, basically what happens is you get 15,000 tons or 18,000 tons onto a vessel that...

things to come up the winter road. So that's what actually happened in 2022. They listed things which were critical for the 2023 construction season and operational season. And those came up the road first. That's why, as I said, they only got 800 out of 1200. But that still was enough surely to to make sure that we were able to maintain the schedule.

Related to the extension of the hauling season or the increased number of containers we want to bring down, the answer is yes. We, we, they did kind of a deep dive after this year. And they looked at a couple things 1 last year they only had in 2022. They only had 28 trucks.

We currently have, we've increased that to 40 trucks that will come up the road and each truck can basically do a load a day. So up and back in a day. And then we tried to increase the season. The season started out in March this year for a couple reasons. 1.

They changed the contracting group that did the ice road. So this was the first time that they'd constructed this particular ice road. And they struggled a little bit. My understanding was with the sea ice. The sea ice has to be actually done last because it has to freeze up a little harder. So what they should have done is they should have what we're actually doing is they should have...

scheduled equipment in the middle and worked out towards the CIs and towards the site and from the site where the CIs is the last to go. That is on plan for this year. Additionally, there is always talk about this kind of...

batting material, not creating a permanent road, but actually being able to build kind of a gravel sub-base up, which will allow you to get the freeze in earlier and get it rotted. They can actually, this year, even before the road opens up.

just because it's within our license area, within our operational area, they can put another six or seven kilometers of kind of permanent road in. That would actually fit very well I think with some of the exploration activities.

that are happening up at that end, which we're looking at. We see opportunities really to get these incremental gains. Of course, it's one of these things that each year you learn more, and you get more experience at it. I would say that I think two years ago, I heard that they brought up, not two years ago, so they didn't do anything two years ago. The last time before this last one, they brought up 80 containers. They didn't have an experience of this.

this full on ice road. 2022 they had full on experience and I think they've done a pretty good job looking at the lay down area unto itself. It is a very adequate facility complete with currently, what is it, 10 million liters of fuel capacity. We're putting up an additional 15 this year and then we'll put up more capacity on site. So we're going to have 50 million liters of fuel capacity at the end of this year.

Overall, I think we're in really good shape for 2022-2024. Yeah, and maybe just a reminder, back in the day, in the BEMA days, when we built COOPL, we actually had to build 470 kilometers of ice roads every year to get everything in before the road disappeared. So, the individuals involved in that, a lot of the individuals involved in that are involved here, and there's always logistical challenges, but I can't think of a group more qualified.

to handle these types of things working with the existing CIVINA team. So we're feeling pretty good about that. Bill mentioned by looking at the end of the second quarter to have more information on the capital costs as we see it and also the operating costs, etc. So we're targeting to have that available.

So, at our end of the general meeting, June 23rd, we'll have a lot more information to tell you about our view and why we're feeling so positive about this. That's great context, very helpful. Thank you. And for our next question.

Our next question comes from the line of Justin Stevens from PI Financial.

Hey, Clyde and team. Yeah, congrats on a good quarter. Definitely beat what I was looking for. And a few more questions just in terms of the modeling for the rest of the year here. Obviously, the COLA phase six was a nice boost for the quarter, but should we expect a bit of a tail off in grades in the coming quarters as that sort of works its way through the timeline?

Was that Epochola? Yes. Yes, the Epochola case X. Yes, that's right. We are in Q3, Q4 producing slightly fewer ounces, so the grade will be lower. The lower grades. But of course, on guides.

And remember, as we mentioned, the Ochocoto production is either weighted the other way so they can offset to a large degree. Yes. Makes sense.

And then just staying with the COLAT, obviously the phase 7 strip is underway. Should that be modeled pretty evenly throughout the year or is there going to be a bump in a particular quarter?

Well, we're already stripping in phase seven, so I'd say it would continue to be throughout the rest of the year.

Well, we're already stripping in phase seven, so I'd say it would continue to be throughout the rest of the year. Got it.

Just in terms of the modeling for the Fakola regional phase one trucking, how should we be looking at the attributable production? Obviously, there's the million 10% free carry, but there's the truck's sacrilegged going to be 90% attributable to V2, or is that essentially so in flux?

Well, you want to go Mike? Well, I'm sorry, I think you're asking what percentage we, I think you must assume the state's going to end up with 20%. Yeah, 80, 20. the same as we have for Coca Cola. Maybe under different mining, depending on how they settle out on the final code.

2019 versus 2012, right now it's kind of in flux, but either way you can expect they're going to have 20%, I think.

And that would be subject to the same sort of independent valuation procedure that happened with the initial plan then too, right? That's correct. Got it. Perfect. And then last one for me. For Goose, given the bulk of the required supplies to meet the timeline, I'm assuming we're going to be coming in those 2023 C-Lifts to make the 2024 ice road season. Come onslow delays close atBye See ya. Cheers.

So we expect the spike in terms of the capital spending in the middle of this year. I think we're kind of even this year. I mean, I think we spread pretty evenly over the three quarters from Q3Q4. Yeah. So we've remembered what's happening. So we've already ordered the stuff, which is already, we've already paid for all the stuff. That is...

Getting on a boat right now to go up to the to the marine lay down area and so That's already paid for what you'll see is the labors kind of it I think I heard something like more than 90% of all the material that we need for site Has already been purchased or is under PO for sure Got it. So yeah, if you've got the POs already then it should be fairly even it'll just be the transportation then It's now just labor and how we schedule that But that should be yeah

Q2, we can give you a better idea of timing. Right now, we've scheduled it out pretty evenly through the three quarters. Perfect. Sounds great. All right. That's it for me. Thanks. Cheers, thanks. Awesome.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of dawn, to Marco Crone Nation Bank Financial.

Thank you, operator. Good morning. Congratulations, Clive and team. So, hey, guys. The – Good morning, everyone.

Continuing with the question on CAPEX, it's going to be evenly distributed, but what should we model for the magnitude of the CAPEX in 2023? I know that Bill has mentioned there's going to be more color in Q2, but can you give us any kind of order of magnitude right now for what to put in our model for this year on GOOSE? Well, I think what's out there is what the Sabina model has.

I don't think at this point we're holding that in our budgets or in our estimates, right? Okay, I think we I think we'd guided we think it's somewhere between 750 850 So what so many hundred Canadian midway in that range? For total capital so being it's pop

it's coming in Q2, but you can expect they're pretty evenly balanced between 23 and 24 with a goal that we get at least, you know, physical construction completed in Q125.

But you can expect they're pretty evenly balanced between 23 and 24 with a goal that we get at least physical construction completed in Q125.

And you mentioned that you extended the airstrip. Can you now fly directly to the project site from Vancouver or Edmonton? From Edmonton, for sure. They're bringing in, I guess, a dash H right now with rotations. So the answer is yes.

Okay, yeah, just to supplement that too as well. We're going to be planning a site visit for the analysts up to Back River in September , so obviously a good time of year to see the progress that we've made.

good to see tier strip first-hand. Great, look forward to that. I noticed in the financials that you've indicated that you incurred a 16 million write-off of some mineral property interest. They're non-core greenfield targets. Not a big magnitude, but can you just give us a little more color on where this might have been?

I can comment on the majority of that. So it's Pakistan. We had three projects but properties we were working on. And so we evaluated those and decided that we weren't going to pursue those. But we are still interested. There's

There are other things of interest there for us, so we're currently in discussions with the state. I don't know if I can add anything to that.

Yeah, the three projects that we had in the Kuzilkum Gold Fields, which is near Murantau, really didn't measure up. We've identified another area closer to Samarkand, closer to the capital.

The three projects that we had in the Kuzilkum Gold Fields, which is near Murantau, really didn't measure up. We've identified another area closer to Samarkand, closer to the capital, that we were in discussions.

Okay, so just in conclusion then, for some of these greenfield targets, I know you're kind of across the world over the last few years.

and putting a lot of effort in and it's ongoing. Japan is through our interest in B-metals. They're running that project. Elsewhere, we've upped our budget in Cote d'Ivoire.ese

Obviously leveraging of our West African experience, the geology is the same, it's a francophone country. It is less volatile, I guess you could say, in terms of the francophones in West Africa. And it has huge potential. So we picked up two licenses there on our own right.

work them up from basic absolute green fields from concept through soil sampling and we're basically doing.

orbit drilling next on 15 kilometers of strike of anomolism. So that's that's going well.

next on 15 kilometers of strike of Anomalism. So that's that's going well.

I think those are the main ones at this point. We've shared a few as well.

other areas that we're consolidating. Obviously, have intent now in Canada, as Clive said through...

through placements and hopefully building those relationships with junior companies or picking up our own ground in Canada.

Thanks for that added colour. That's all for me. Congratulations again on a strong start to the year.

Thanks for that added color. That's all for me. Congratulations again on a strong start to the year.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Steven Green from T.D. Cowan.

the plan for the next year. Thanks guys. Just a couple of quick follow ups. Bill you talked about about developing a plan for Ficola and kind of giving us some guidance on that plan and Q2 . Would that include private your road map to the 800,000 houses or will we have to wait until Q4 with your with your kind of

Going to be in q4 so you're not going to see anything at the end of q2 what you're going to see is a comprehensive plan In q4 for the whole complex With a new resource, that's right. Okay, and would that include a new reserve as well? See a New reserve for Coca-Cola regional complex q4 Depends on depends on the outcome of the study. I mean that's that's how we're doing the study There are certainly portions of that it would be eligible

to be reserves and we would evaluate all of those. As far as which specific pieces would come in, I think it's too early to comment on that. In really a direct answer to your question, that is one of the reasons we're doing this whole comprehensive study is to show where all the pieces fit together for this 800,000 that we've been putting out there.

Okay, fair enough. And just a clarification on Ojikodo. I know you have some lower grade stockpiles there and there's been discussion in some of your literature on that taking you out to 2030 and beyond. Is that still the case or is it dependent on kind of keeping some of the grade up with the underground through those years? So it is absolutely the case. As a matter of fact, some of the...

That's all I have. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. One moment for our next question.

Our next question comes from the line of Mohammed Sidby from CIBC World Markets Inc.

Most of my questions have been answered, but I just wanted to clarify on the end, I found that area of study which will be related to port 23.

Is the thinking to hit the ground running as soon as the study is out, or would you delay the economic decision on the project for some time later? I'm basically thinking about the timeline of the 800,000-ounce pool as early as 2026. Is that still there? Yes. So, I would say that obviously…

We get scheduled if we go.

we see holding the schedule on that. You know, kind of if we do phase two, it'll be a 2026 kind of into production.

Thanks for that, Carlos. And then just a final question on me. I think more on the modeling front really. Thinking about the MOSBOT on full-pounted, should we expect these to flow through in Q2 or maybe it will be sometime later during the year? I heard something about MOSBOT in Q2, I thought.

Yeah, exactly. Sorry, just a question on the Mazzbati unsold ounces. After the unsold ounces from Q1, should we expect that to be sold in Q2 or would it be later during the year? Yeah, it's just a timing issue of getting it through customs.

It's a decaf because it's on a 9. It doesn't always work perfectly with a quarter end. So, yep, absolutely. Okay, perfect. Thank you. I'll ask everything online. Thanks. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.

To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Our next question comes from the line of Harman Puri from Bank of America Securities. Hi, operator. Thank you, and thank you for the update today. Most of my questions have actually been answered. I just have another sort of modeling question.

Can you provide us with some color on sort of the grade profile at Coca-Cola and the results? You noted that you had a favorable mine phasing sequence start to 2023. Could you could you sort of provide color on as to whether or not you're still going to be hitting that 2.2 gram per ton guided number for 2023? Yeah, I don't think overall for the annual amount.

we were regarding. We say it's at least to that number. So whatever was 2.2 or 2.3, that is our annual number. Yeah, I mean, we were right on budget in Q1 for grades. Like, we're right on budget. OK, OK, thank you.

we're reguiding, we say it's at least that number. So whatever was 2.2 or 2.3, that is our annual number. Yeah, I mean, we were right on budget in Q1. We're great. Like, we're right on budget. OK, OK, thank you.

Thank you. At this time, I would now like to turn the conference back over to Clive Johnson for closing remarks. Okay, well thanks everyone for taking the time to present the Q1 results and talk about our plans going forward. Thank you all very much. Have a good day.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the B2 Gold First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode.

After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again.

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Clive Johnson, President, CEO and Director. Please go ahead. Good morning, afternoon, whoever you are everyone and thanks for joining us. We're here today to talk about the Beechu Gold Q1 2023.

operational and financial results. We had another strong quarter of operating performance which led to some very positive financial results. Mike Cinnamon, our CFO , is going to walk you through that and then Bill Lidl, our CFO , is going to update us on the Back River Project, the status of that, and talk a bit about the

For Cola complex expansion projects looking on them, that can or seem to be due to exploration, we'll talk to us a little bit about exploration plans for Back River, which just approves a large exploration budget and it also updates the progress in terms of exploration.

expansion projects looking on them that can or seem to be due expiration. We'll talk to a little bit about expiration plans for back where we just approved the large expiration budget and you'll also update the progress in terms of expiration in the FICOLA.

And then we'll open up for questions after that. So with that, I'll hand it over to Mike Sinnam. Thanks, Clive. So I'll walk us through the operating results first and the cash flows. On the revenue side, we sold 4,000 ounces more than we'd budgeted, so a total of $2,000

249,000 ounces from our operating mines. And good news is we had an average price of just over $1,900 for the queue. When we budgeted, we had 1,700, so we're very happy to see that 200 bucks plus an ounce. And obviously, gold prices continue to increase, as you know, to today. On the production side, from all the operations, including our share of caliber, 267,000 ounces. And from our three operating mines, 251,000 ounces, both of which were 5,000 ounces, ahead of budget.

And most of the 5,000 ounces were spread pretty evenly across the three operations. So, Focola had 166,000 ounces. Production was higher, we expected it to be higher because we had that favorable higher grade material coming from phase six of the Focola pet.

the grade was 2.47 grams per ton which is right on budget. Then Ms. Batty, Ms. Batty was pretty much as planned. The grade this year is lower than it was in the comparable quarter last year as we know it the peak rate was 0.95 grams per ton.

And then Ochocoto, 38,000 ounces, slightly ahead of budget.

Again, we expected, we were in some of the higher grade portions of Wolfshag Underground Mine. I'll just remind you too for Ojikodas, we looked through the...

to the balance of the year. It's more weighted to the second half of the year as we get into more high-grade material in phase four of the Ojokoto Pit plus continued high-grade ore from Wolfshank. But overall, a good result production pretty much on target, slightly ahead of budget. Cash costs, we actually did considerably better than budget. So from all, on a consolidated basis from all operations, total cash costs.

One was that we mined less material in the period due to some of the tire working conditions in Phase VI.

including only having one ramp available for haulage, which has now been resolved in April of this year. And then we also had lower fuel costs. The mining tonnage shortfall is expected to be caught up over the balance of 2023. On Mardani, the mining tonnage shortfall is expected to be caught up over the balance of 2023.

Again, we were $176 an ounce below budgets. That was a function of slightly higher than budget gold production and quite significantly lower than budget diesel and heavy fuel oil costs.

We haven't revisited any of the lower fuel costs for the balance of the year. We've assumed that it'll stay where we budgeted that, but certainly current indicators are definitely the prices have dropped a bit. And while the forward curve is a forward curve and not in backwardation anymore for fuel, it's pretty flat. We may see some benefit as we roll through the balance of the year in the cost side.

For the all-in sustaining costs, total and including our share of caliber, $1060, which was $146 lower than budget and same story from our three standalone operating mines. It's really a function of the lower cash operating costs that they mentioned. And then timing of CapEx.

We've seen capex for Q1 was below budgets. Sustaining capex was about 10 million below what we'd budgeted just for the timing of things like the completion of the TSF raised at FOCOLA. And then some of the other fleet equipment rebuilds. And that's just timing. We expect to see all of that reversed as we go through the balance of the year. A few comments maybe on the operations of the building. Bill's going to talk to the floor.

to take those results and put them into a new resource for Anaconda. So that resource is going to take a bit longer to produce with the result of that Ficola regional phase two mill. Study is now expected in the fourth quarter of 2023. On the Ojikota side, we continue to develop Wolfshag-1-

As announced, we are undertaking a joint sales process with our partner, AGA. That process is moving along. It seems to be good and trust on phase one. We're still on phase one of the process. We expect to wrap that part up within probably the next two months, month to two months, with a goal that will wrap up this whole process before year end.

a fair amount of the financing obligations that the financing plan of Sabina put in place. And so we've bought out the off-take agreement, well, all of it, 100% of it, so that's gone. We've also canceled that facility that they had and the goal prepaids that they set up. And in addition, as we were permitted to under the.

in terms of the agreement, we bought out one third of the streaming arrangement that was there with the Wheat and Precious model. So that's total cost of 111 million cash, just what you'll see come through in Q2. But it does let us really focus on financing with the facilities and the financing capacity that we have available through our own cash flows and our debt facilities.

and also allows us to benefit more from future upside, which as we've mentioned many times when we discussed back where we see a lot of upside there. On the earnings side, when you translate all those operating results, trivial earnings to shareholders just under 86 million are eight cents per share. Adjusted.

earnings, a tribulation shareholders 106 million or 10 cents per share. And a couple of comments on the cash flow. So cash flow, not cash flow from operating activities, 203 million or 19 cents per share, or as we've also disclosed in the news release, cash flow before working capital, 223 million or 21 cents per share. So very solid cash flow quarter. Of course the gold price helped as well as some of those lower costs that I mentioned. On the financing side, we continue to pay a dividend at the same rate, four cents US per share.

It wasn't annualized, 170 plus million per year pre-Sylvina, but now with the additional Sylvina shares that have been issued, the Sylvina acquisition, you think we'll see that jump up to somewhere around 210, 210 plus, 210 million.

On the CapEx side, like 131 million spent in the queue. In total, we were about 42 million under budget. 10 of that was lower sustaining capital as I mentioned already. And then 32 million was just lower non-sustaining capital, which is all related just to the timing of the underground development, development for Cola Regional. Again, these are all timing, I think.

That budget in total is now 84 million for the year with 20 million really focused on additional drilling that we're planning to do at Back River. And I think Vic can give you an update on that in a second. Overall we finished the period 673 million in the bank and have not been drawn on the revolver and really minimal debt on the balance sheet other than a few leases. And I think – anything else you want me to touch on there? I think that's –

I think that's most of it, like I said. Thank you. Bill Vylen is going to talk to us about update on how we're doing it. We'll talk about expansion itself.

Why is that so difficult? Yes, so thanks, Clive. Mike covered the operational stuff quite in depth, so I'm not going to talk about any of that. But just quickly talking on the Anaconda phase 1 study. So I think everyone is aware originally we talked about potentially putting out a BA Q2. That's been moved to Q4. And it is based on some of the exploration success we've been seeing.

But I would like to expand upon that a little bit. I don't think it's just the exploration success. As you know, the Anaconda phase one or phase two study is really about the oxides. But they're also having success on the sulfides. So what we're talking about doing now is more of an integrated kind of regional complex, where we look at everything. And we give you an update not only for what would be happening at the oxide plant, but also what would be happening as far as sulfides and where they would go. We're going to stand up and talk to you about going at the

So all that has to come into play and we're talking about putting that out in Q4 this year. Related to what's currently going on there, the phase one. Remember phase one is a trucking study or trucking program which basically takes us between 80 and 100,000 ounces a year down to Ficola while we're finishing the study.

has to come into play and we're talking about putting that out in Q4 this year. Related to what's currently going on there, the phase one, remember phase one is a trucking study or a trucking program which basically takes us between 80 and 100 thousand ounces a year down to Ficola while we're finishing the study and building phase two if that's what we're doing.

so chose to do, that project remains on track. So basically, all of the roads are in now. We're just finishing up the final culverts. The infrastructure is being built. We have received our ESIA for the phase 1 study. We're currently waiting for them to finalize their feasibility review and issue the exploitation license. And so what I can say is that really, I'm going to say right at the end of Q3 beginning of Q4, you're going to start seeing analysis come out of there. And what I will tell you is that always remember what we said is just because that's what the study says, that's we still need to make different localities from the existing community.

not necessarily what we're going to do. We're going to take the ounces, the highest grade ounces, the highest NPV ounces, and process those first. So what I can say is that right now there's about 18,000 ounces we're talking about in 2023, which would come out of the Anaconda phase 1. Anything else on that? That's good. OK, so Sabina, everyone's aware that Sabina closed kind of in the third week of April . Since then, we've been extremely busy. Some of the questions that we got early on.

building all of our projects in Far East Russia and Africa and Nicaragua. They're busy assembling the rest of the team and I will say that we've had very few people turn us down. They want to come back. But on top of that, I think it's really important to highlight that the people that were at SAVINA, the people that were running the site and kind of managing

These contractors on site have also agreed to come across and work with our team together. So now what we've got is we've got a very good historical knowledge of the site. Certainly the people that were in charge of logistics have been critical in both last year and this year. They're with us. And we've got our build team to add on to that. So I feel very strongly that we have the right team that can certainly execute this project. And we're still calling for it to be on time. So we're still talking about a Q1 2025 commissioning. As far as the logistics, I think everyone's aware this is the logistics project even more than.

more than the mining project. The winter road this year was a success. While they were saying that they needed, that they had 1,200 containers, they had 600 which were on the critical path. They brought in more than 800 containers this year. So we have all of the necessary equipment and supplies to do all the key things that need to be done in order to keep us on the schedule. So really the intent of this year is to get the camp up which they're already doing I can say with confidence. This morning I talked to them the kitchen is already up.

and they're getting ready to run power into the kitchen, so then the wings would come up next. And so we're seeing kind of a July 1 date for the opening up of the kitchen, or of the first phase of the camp. And then over the next couple weeks after that, they'll finish it up into August . We have to pour concrete this year. That's concrete for the warehouse.

The mill building and potentially the powerhouse. All that concrete is on site. All the steel for those facilities are on site. And we're just currently scheduling in which order we want to do them. As far as orders for 2023, 2024, C-LISP slash Winter Road. That all remains on schedule. We've done a very good job of integrating the former Sabina team with the B2O construction team. They were in the office last week finalizing orders. Everything has to be on the C-LISP and heading up towards the Marine lay down area.

in kind of August , September . So by July everything has to be at the point where they consolidate. All of that remains on schedule at this point. And then we're actually shooting for an earlier opening date of the winter road next year. We have as many as 2,000 containers we want to drag up the road next year. So we're talking about an early February date. And we've worked with the Sabina team.

the former Sabina team to make that happen. And what we've done is we've brought in more trucks. We've brought in more equipment to operate, to open up the road from two directions, actually three directions, from the middle and from both ends. And we're hoping that it'll get open, as I said, early, like the first week of February . What else can I say on that? As far as additional logistics.

We have extended the airstrip, so we're able to bring stuff on directly on the site with something as big as a 727 and overall that project remains on schedule. So I will tell you that before the end of June is our intent to update the budget based on what we have put forth and come up with what our final cost is going to be.

So, we continue as far as things that are happening offsite, we continue to maintain very good relationships with the community, the community that could take me at. Association in Nunavut, we just attended a conference up there. I don't know if Clive wants to talk about it a little bit more, but in general, because we've maintained all of the Sabina key personnel to include massive Picard and Andrew more. Those people have really continued the bridge of that relationship and we maintain very strong relationships within UN community.

I'll just touch on, we went to the symposium in Nunavut. The mining symposium at the time was really good because we just closed the Sabina deal. We were able to introduce everyone there to B2Gold and talk about the fact that some of our experiences of the Russia days, as Bill mentioned in construction for some of us, go back to that in terms of knowledge about a logistical challenge in the north.

That was very well received and I also talked to them about a bit of a personal homecoming for me having 40 some years ago, but a line cutter and a claims leader and exporter in the Yukon so I'm sort of back to the north as well, but I think the most important message that we brought to them was continuity as Bill mentioned from some of the great work that we've been doing with the Landowners Kitikmeok group continue on with some very good CSR projects that we'll be able to increase the budget on that as well as the speech of financial strength. But the big message was that we were as close to maintaining the schedule that Sabina put forward.

That was a great relief to many people because unfortunately like Nico Eagle for taking over T-MAC had run the mine for a while, hope they and then decided to shut it down and go back to Julie. So I think they were very concerned whether another big company might come in, bigger company might come in and do the same thing. When we did the acquisition, when we started looking at Sabine, I made it very clear to Bill that it was up to him and his team to decide the schedule that we could live with and I did say to Bill that if we thought we needed more time.

I thought our shareholders would understand that to get it right, but the good news is with the quality of work done by Sabina, a very good work of Bruce McConnel and his entire team, we were able to, after lots of scrutiny and tremendous amount of diligence, conclude that we could in fact maintain the schedule. as Bill has said.

It was a great symposium that we went to and frankly it's nice to be investing in Canada. We're not a foreign investor on this one. And I think as long as we can do what we've done for a long time, deliver on the promises we've made in the North, I think we'll have a great success and great relationships with the local communities. So it was very positive. We were also talking potentially with an eco-legal, are there some things we can combine as two companies.

new event to do some projects together, maybe it would be some CSR projects etc. I think this is a real positive view from our perspective of going north and also of the community and the industry. We felt very welcome, the keys to deliver as always on the promises.

that we've made. I think with that I'll get Vic King to talk a bit about this new budget and maybe you can talk a little bit about the team, because we're not only inherited.

some great people and whether it be the indigenous relationships but also in terms of construction, etc. But obviously you can tell people what you think of the joining forces with the existing team from the exploration side. Yes, absolutely. The quality of the work that's been done by the

The ExaBina team is top class. And I'm very happy to say that we've virtually retained almost the entire team. So we'll be hitting the ground running for sure and supplemented by people from our existing B2 Gold team as well. The budget has increased by...

Our global budget, as Mike mentioned, has increased by 20 million US. That is, to put it into context, I think Sabina had in the order of around 5 million Canadian, I think, on average as an exploration budget. So this is the 20 million, 27 Canadian.

Our global budget, as Mike mentioned, has increased by 20 million US. That is, to put it into context, I think Sabina had in the order of around 5 million Canadian, I think on average, as an exploration budget. So this 20 million, 27 Canadian is a five fold increase.

to be spent in six months, it's a 10 times increase. So we intend to get the ground really hard, so bringing in additional rigs. We plan to complete at least 25,000 meters.

of diamond drilling. The allocation of that drilling will be on the GOOSE project, which comprises a number of deposits. But a lot of that will be on the Ummuel deposit.

which is the highest grade and also the biggest contributor to the resource. Some of that drilling will be in full to improve the...

density of drilling to optimize the underground planning, underground mining planning, but also to extend what is clearly open-ended mineralization on each of the four deposits on the GOOSE project itself. That's gonna be about $15 million of the budget. There's another $5 million that we intend to spend.

on what are clearly top class projects, gold opportunities in this band of iron formation hosted with apologies. George, which is about 50 kilometres to the northwest of Goose, is where there has been a resource there already and over 40 targets on that license.

low on those claim blocks. Sabina had been drilling there this year, completed drilling, I think, two weeks ago, the current program. We'll get back in there and drill it, George. And just to highlight, I've just mentioned two projects there.

Within this 80 kilometer belt, this gold district, we also have another three project areas, Boulder, Dell and Boot, that have had economic intersections of mineralization.

certainly be following up on as well over time. That covers that river.

Just to get back to Marlee, Marlee had the lion's share of the budget this year, over $34.5 million. And that really – Someone help us make this movie, right?

is a record amount for Mali for sure. We have more rigs turning there, more people busy in exploration than we've ever had. We've already completed over 100,000 meters of drilling in Mali. A lot of that, as Bill mentioned earlier, has been focused on infill drilling in the saprolites.

moving more material into the indicated category to support the studies that are going into the phase two mold options that we're looking at in the area. Then pin-hole drilling is complete and we're back.

We're currently updating the resource, hope to complete that certainly before the end of this quarter, and it will feed into the timeline that both Bill and Mike mentioned earlier.

We haven't only been doing info, as you would have seen in the earlier press release, I think earlier this month. We've had some significant success in sulphides on the anaconda properties.

We haven't only been doing info, as you would have seen in the earlier press release, I think earlier this month. We've had some significant success in sulfides on the anaconda properties.

At Mamba, we hit actually our highest, biggest intersection we've ever had in West Mali, 8.6 grams over 46 meters. This supports another hit in the same zone, Mamba main zone, of over 8 grams over nearly 16 meters. The sulfide potential here is certainly not over yet for sure, and there are plenty of moreometer amounts associated with these types of work.

intersections that would tend to support the potential for underground and certainly extension of the sulphide, a lot of the pets into the sulphide at the Anaconda Project.

intersections that would tend to support the potential for underground and certainly extension of the sulfide, a lot of the pits into the sulfide at the anaconda project. Additionally-

You'll recall that we acquired the baculobi license which is essentially the piece of the jigsaw sitting between the two anaconda properties in Met 90 where our piccolo mine is located. We've extended the drilling onto the baculobi license.

Particularly one of the snakes, Cobra, has shown to be sent significantly for over two and a half kilometers of additional strike on the Bacalobi side of the fence. That's within the oxide. So that'll certainly contribute as well. In the last press release we also named a...

indicated a new zone, which is further to the south, but still on bacalobi, which we've pulled tight pan. And we've had some pretty good intersections there as well. Yeah, for instance, 28 meters at 1.8, 23 at over 4 grams. And that's really just getting started. So.

I think a lot more work planned for MALI, keeping those rigs and those people busy. I guess those are the highlights. I forgot something. Can I jump back in?

One of the things that we've been asked to do as we've taken on this project, because B2 does things a little bit different than the schedule that they are the way they were going to do it. So we've been asked to generate kind of a new capital schedule and a new operating cost profile. It is our intent to have those done in Q2. So internally by the end of this month, but I think by the end of Q2 we're ready to talk about. That also includes.

As Sabina was talking about, they were talking about bringing some ounces forward from the underground. We are currently revisiting the underground, both the methodology and the schedule. We will include that in our next update on how far we think we can push this thing as it comes up out of the ground.

One of the studies that will be submitted at the start of the world pick up is the study on potential for wind power. Obviously we're a leader in the industry in solar power, but what we've done in Namibia and Mali, but we'll be having a hard look. There's no assumptions for anything currently. We're waiting for a study to be done, but there is precedent for it in the north of Canada. That could be an interesting opportunity in terms of reducing emissions, but also could have a positive.

effect on the cost up there as well. In terms of strategy going forward, we are very happy with the growth profile we have right now in terms of looking at the two stages of expansion for Cola complex and also of course

exciting project at this. A lot of that is because of one of the reasons we did the acquisition and are confident about our ability to accomplish these things, subject to a study on the second bill. And our colleagues are of course in an extraordinarily strong financial position. If you look back at our history, the strategy really, if you put it quite simply, is that our strong operational and therefore financial performance for years has fueled growth by our ability to do creative acquisitions, build minds ourselves and also do a lot of exploration work. So I think that's one of the keys to our success, but we're also a very focused group.

You've heard us talk about the sequencing of the expansion of the FICOLA if we go forward with the second mill, how that works with doing the first expansion, which is the trucking which is happening now at FICOLA, then goose construction, and then potentially building the second mill. So we're not going to build two mines and mills at the same time, we've always said that. But also we're not going to be looking now as hard at M&A development for J-M&A for that same reason. We're going to stay very focused on the growth profile we have now in the company. We will continue to look at exploration opportunities, something we've been very good at, and that will include not only entering to the

into deals with landowners or but also smaller companies. We started to invest in some junior companies with exciting projects like Snow Lineup in Yukon and Matador in Eastern Canada. So that's a pretty exciting strategy. We think also offering to these groups that are good to exploration teams offering gives us any assistance we can provide in terms of looking at their exploration plans. So a lot of junior exploration companies unfortunately they're struggling these days even with gold going higher. So for a lot of these companies I think it's quite attractive to have a friendly shareholder. I'm not sure I bear egg anybody but a friendly shareholder would be to go.

We are going to be exploring those kinds of alternatives as well as we go forward. But the thing we are going to continue to do, as we have done for many years, is be very focused on what we are now on the acquisitions we have done and the opportunities we have to grow the company. Michael, do you have anything you think we should add to that? Okay, well I think with that we will open it up for questions. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.

To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Oveas Habib from Scotiabank. Thanks, operator. Hi, Clive and B2 team. Again, congrats on the BEAT and the strong start of the year. And really great to see the development of Back River progressing well. Just a couple of questions for me, starting off with the Anaconda Phase 2 study.

Now, it looks like based on exploration success, especially on the cellpipes, you pushed out the study to Q4. Now, maybe this is a question for Bill as well. Would you look to change the scope of the project with larger processing facility or any color you can provide as to the size and scope of the project going forward?

Yeah, surely, once again, it's never enough to put a second mill on. Now it needs to be bigger, harder, faster, stronger. But what I would say is that we're definitely not changing the scope of the second mill. We're looking at a 4 million ton per atom oxide mill, but as you know, as B2 often does, we did put in...

capacity to expand and or eventually add a sulfide circuit if necessary. That's all being looked at. But really what we're talking about is remember you're going to have this very interesting situation if you build the mill there because it only takes oxides. The sulfides have to come south to Pecola. So instead of kind of cheating you and saying, okay, I've got this great oxide mill and then my sulfides in the long term will go and start to decrease, I'll be able to tell you, listen, my life of mine is extended because of sulfides.

which means I've now got two options for oxides. Don't forget we've got the endocle, we've got bacalobite. The whole concept is to roll this thing into a regional play and really show you what this complex can do. Thanks, Bill. Clive wants me to mention that as B2 is wont to do from time to time, they get all of the decision makers in a room with the technical people and they beat these things about the head. Clive calls them swirls and we just had one yesterday. It was an interesting swirl in the sense that...

All the options put on the table seem very good. It's just a question of which way you want to go inside of a larger corporate strategy. Right, thank you. And just any sort of color you can provide right now how things are moving along with the underground ad FICOLA or underground component of FICOLA? Yeah, I can talk about it a little bit and then I'll turn it over to Dennis Stanberry who was just there working with the regulators to get the permits. But I'll tell you, remember the exploration project, or sorry, the underground project is an exploration project at this time. Right, with the concept of to develop it and get down to the face so you can drill it off and put the resource into reserves.

We've done it stepwise where all the surface infrastructure had been approved already, and now we're up to really putting in the portal and all the supporting infrastructure for that. Dennis, maybe you want to say a few words so that you were just over there? Dennis Dixon We met with regulators last week, had a good session with them. They've come back with a very, very short list of questions. We're putting

prepared the face for the first blast. Access is quite good. It looks very good. It's doing an excellent job there. The work looks very very first class. Hopefully we'll be kicking off the first rounds and heading underground very very shortly. Thanks, Dennis. Perfect. Thanks for the color, Dennis. Maybe moving a little bit to Utkuru, I believe open pit mining is...

So the answer is yes. I think we've always said that there's a resource down plunge that has to be drilled off from underground, which we're getting down to that. We'll start to do that now. We've always cautioned that we're not going to extend the overall life of mine. Of course, you'll extend the underground. But it's unlikely that we'll find enough resource at that spot.

to extend the life of mine. We are onto something which has potential, which I think is a bit preliminary to talk about. But at the end of the day, the existing underground will not extend the life of mine. It might extend the ounce profile, but we're certainly digging around, and we're onto something we think could do that somewhere else. Mopik's an expert, so he can talk about it. Yeah, OK, yeah. Yeah, about three kilometers south of the Ochicota Pit, on what we call a

hopefully the the Ochicoto feeder structure we've hit

the Chicago feeder structure. We've hit some interesting intersections.

These are at, definitely will have to be mined underground. The question here is whether we can actually get these to hang together over sufficient strike extent to actually build up a resource that would warrant.

basically developing down to those levels. It is early stage as Bill said. It's still very encouraging. Thanks, thanks for the work Bill as well. And maybe I'll stop there and jump back in the queue, but thanks for taking my questions. Excellent. Thank you. One moment for our next question.

Our next question comes from Ralph from 8 Capital. Thanks operator, good afternoon everyone. Just a couple questions on the success that we've seen on the logistics side. Is there an ability to take advantage of some of the sequencing on delivery of material, critical material between the ice road and the sea lift?

Just wondering if that's being taken advantage of in order to stay ahead of schedule. And then sort of a follow on question from that, if you're talking about an early opening in February , can you put that in context for me how the 2022 season figured out in terms of the timing? And just sort of what's behind that more opportunistic approach? Has there actually been work done on the ice road that's opening up that window a little bit more positively? So, the answer I'll start in reverse the answer is yes. So, the logistics question at the end of the day.

As you know, basically what happens is you get 15,000 tons or 18,000 tons onto a vessel. They bring it up normally on the eastern route up past Ontario and then Quebec and then down into that area. That happens, everything has to be in by July , or sorry, by September or October . There we have the marine lay down area where we do.

Prioritize things to come up the winter road. So that's what actually happened in 2022. They listed things which which were critical for the 2023. Construction season and operational season, and those came up the road 1st. That's why, as I said, they only got 800 out of 1200. But that still was enough surely to to make sure that we were. Able to maintain the schedule related to the extension of the hauling season, or the increased number of. Containers we want to bring down the answer is yes, we've we, they did kind of a deep dive after this year. And they looked at a couple of things 1 last year, they only had in 2022. They only had 28 trucks.

We currently have we've increased that to 40 trucks that will come up the road and each truck can basically do a load a day. So, up and back in a day. And then we tried to increase the season. The season started out in March this year for a couple reasons. 1. they changed the contracting group that did the ice road.

So this was the first time that they've constructed this particular ice road, and they struggled a little bit. My understanding was with the sea ice. The sea ice has to be actually done last because it has to freeze up a little harder. So what they should have done is they should have, what we're actually doing is they should have scheduled equipment kind of in the middle and worked out towards the sea ice and towards the site and from the site where the sea ice is the last to go. So that is on plan for this year. And then additionally, there's always talk about kind of this...

Fadding material not not creating a permanent road, but actually being able to build kind of a gravel sub base up which will allow you to Get the freeze in earlier and get road in they can actually this year even before The road opens up just because it's within our License area within our operational area they can put another six or seven kilometers of kind of permanent road in that would actually fit very Well, I think with some of the exploration activities that are happening up at that end which we're looking at So we see opportunities really to get these incremental gains and of course. It's one of these things that each year you learn more

and you get more experience in that. I would say that I think two years ago I heard that they brought up, not two years ago, they didn't do anything two years ago, but the last time before this last one they brought up 80 containers, right? So they didn't have this experience of this full on ice road. 2022 they had full on experience and I think they've done a pretty good job looking at the lay down area unto itself. It is a very adequate facility complete with currently, what is it, 10 million liters of fuel capacity. We're putting up an additional 15 this year and then we'll put up more capacity on site. So we're gonna have 50 million liters of fuel capacity at the end of this year. So overall, I think we're in really good shape for 2022, 2024.

Yeah, and maybe just a reminder, back in the day, in the Bina days, when we built Cupola, we actually had to build 470 kilometers of ice roads every year to get everything in before the road disappeared. So the individuals involved are not a lot of the individuals involved here.

and there's always logistical challenges, but I can't think of a group more qualified to handle these types of things and working with the existing CIVI and the team. So we're feeling pretty good about that. Bill mentioned by looking at the end of the second quarter to have more information on the capital costs as we see it and also the operating costs, etc. So we're targeting to have that available.

So, at our end of general meeting, June 23rd, we'll have a lot more information to tell you about our view and why we're feeling so positive about this. That's great context, very helpful. Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Justin Stevens from PI Financial.

Hey, Clyde and team. Yeah, congrats on a good quarter. Definitely beat what I was looking for. And a few more questions just in terms of the modeling for the rest of the year here. Obviously, FICOLA phase six was a nice boost for the quarter, but should we expect a bit of a tail off in grade in the coming quarter as that sort of works its way through the mine plan? Was that at FICOLA? Yes. Yeah, FICOLA phase six. Yeah. The answer is yes. We are at Q3, Q4 producing slightly fewer ounces.

the grade will be lower. Of course on guides. And remember as we mentioned that Ochocoto production is weighted the other way so they can offset to large degree. Yes, makes sense. And then just staying with the cola, obviously the phase seven strip is underway. Should that be modeled pretty evenly throughout the year or is there going to be a bit of a bump in a particular quarter? Well we're already stripping in phase seven so I'd say it would continue to be throughout the rest of the year. Got it. Just in terms of the modeling for the VEQLA regional

phase one trucking, how should we be looking at the attributable production? Obviously, there's the million 10% free carry. Does the truck sacralite going to be 90% attributable to B2, or is that essentially still in flux? Well, you want to go, Mike? Well, I'm sorry. I think you're asking what percentage. I think you must assume the state's going to end up with 20%. Yeah, 80-20. The same as we have for Coca-Cola. Maybe under different mining, depending on how they settle out on the final code, 2019 versus 2012, right now it's kind of in flux. But either way, you can expect they're going to have 20%, I think.

Got it. And that would be subject to the same sort of independent valuation procedure that happened with the initial plan, right? That's correct. Got it. Perfect. And then last one for me. For Goose, given the bulk of the required supplies to meet the timeline, I'm assuming we're going to be coming in those 2023 C-Lifts to make the 2024 ice road season. Do we expect a spike in terms of the capital spendings in the middle of this year? I think we're kind of even this year, aren't we? I think we spread it out pretty evenly over the three quarters from Q3.

Q3, Q4? Yes, so if you remember what's happening, so we've already ordered the stuff, which is already, we've already paid for all the stuff that is getting on a boat right now to go up to the marine lay down area. And so that's already paid for. What you'll see is the labor's kind of, I think I heard something like more than 90% of all the material that we need for site has already been purchased.

Or is under PO for sure. So, yeah, if you cut the PO's already, then it should be fairly even. It'll just be transportation then. It's now just labor and how we schedule that. But that should be – yeah. Q2, we can give you a better idea of timing. Got it. Right now, we've scheduled it out pretty evenly through the three-quarters. Perfect. Sounds great. All right. That's it for me. Thanks for watching.

So, yeah, if you've got the POs already, then, yeah, it should be fairly even. It'll just be the transportation and – It's now just labor and how we schedule that. Yeah, but that should be – yeah. Q2, we can give you a better idea of timing. Got it. That's – right now, we've scheduled it out pretty evenly through the three-quarters. Perfect. Sounds great. All right. That's it for me. Thanks. Cheers. Thank you.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Don DeMarco from Nation Bank Financial. Thank you, operator. Good morning. Congratulations, colliding team. So, hey, guys, continuing with the question on CapEx, so it's going to be evenly distributed, but what should we model for the magnitude of the CapEx in 2023? I know that Bill has mentioned there's going to be more color in Q2, but can you give us any kind of order of magnitude right now for what to put in our model for this year on GOOSE? Well, I think what's out there is what the Sabina model has. I don't think

At this point, we're holding that in our estimates, right? I think we guided, we think it's somewhere between 750, 850, so 800 Canadian, but we're in that range. For total capital, Sudeina it's spot.

between 100 and 200, so why don't you take 150 and assume that the balance is left for us. Yeah, and remember that includes supercharging the underground, which we're currently placing fuel on as well. And we will, I think we'll expect that it'll, again, we haven't guided this yet, so it's coming in Q2, but you can expect they're pretty evenly balanced between 23 and 24 with a goal that we get at least, you know, physical construction completed in Q125.

Okay, and you mentioned that you extended the airstrip. Can you now slide directly to the project site from Vancouver or Edmonton? From Edmonton, for sure. They're bringing in, I guess, a dash H right now with a.

rotations. So the answer is yes. Okay. Yeah, and just to supplement that too as well, we're going to be planning a site visit for the analysts up to Back River in September , so obviously a good time of year to see the progress that we've made and get to see the airstrip first hand. Okay, great. Look forward to that.

I noticed in the financials that you incurred a 16 million write-off of some mineral property interest. They are non-core greenfield targets, not a big magnitude, but can you just give us a little more color on where this might have been? I can comment on the majority of that. In Pakistan, we had three properties we were working on. We evaluated those and decided that we weren't going to pursue those, but we are still interested.

There are other things of interest there for us, so we're currently in discussions with the state. I don't know if I can add anything to that. Yeah, the three projects that we had in the Kuzulkun Gold Fields, which is near Murantau, really didn't measure up. We've identified another area closer to Samarkand, closer to the capital, that we're in discussions with the Ministry of Arts. Okay, so.

For some of these greenfield targets, I know you are across the world over the last few years. So Uzbekistan is still –

There's still some interest there. What about Japan and Finland and is there any others where there might be some early stage Greek field interest still ongoing? Well, Finland is definitely up there as an area that we're spending quite a bit of money and putting a lot of effort in and it's ongoing. Japan is through our interest in B-metals. We know there is a lot to \'96 we know there isn't becauseover the years the Army has done our part for us. No, and to that end, all of our costs are still being spent, not directly to exchange on a fire.

They're running that project. Elsewhere, we've upped our budget in Cote d'Ivoire, obviously leveraging of our West African experience, the geology is the same, it's a francophone country. It is less volatile, I guess you could say, in terms of the francophones in West Africa, and it has huge potential.

So we picked up two licenses there on our own right, worked them up from basic absolute green fields from concept through soil sampling and we're basically doing over-drilling next on 15 kilometers of strike of anomolism. So that's going well.

I think those are the main ones at this point in time. We've shared a few as well, other areas that we're consolidating, obviously have intent now in Canada, as Clive said through...

through placements and hopefully building those relationships with junior companies or picking up our own ground in Canada. Sure enough. Okay. Okay, well, thanks for that added color, and that's all for me. So congratulations again on a strong start to the year. Thanks. Thanks hauled.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Green from TD Cowan. Thanks guys. Just a couple of quick follow-ups. Bill, you talked about developing a plan for FICOLA and kind of giving us some guidance on that plan in Q2.

Would that include your roadmap to the 800,000 ounces, or will we have to wait until Q4 with your build plan for that? Yeah, what I said was that the original plan for Q2 was going to be in Q4. So you're not going to see anything at the end of Q2. What you're going to see is a comprehensive plan in Q4 for the whole complex. With a new resource. With a new resource, that's right. OK, and would that include a new reserve as well?

A new reserve for FRCOA, regional complex Q4? It depends on the outcome of the study. That's why we're doing the study. There will be certainly portions of it that would be eligible to be reserves and we would evaluate all of those. As far as which specific pieces would come in, I think it's too early to comment on that. But in really kind of direct answer to your question, that is one of the reasons we're doing this whole comprehensive study is to kind of show where all the pieces fit together for this.

800,000 that we've been putting out there. Right. Okay, fair enough. Just a clarification on Ojikodo. I know you have some lower grade stockpiles there and there's been discussion in some of your literature on that taking you out to 2030 and beyond. Is that still the case or is it dependent on keeping some of the grade up with the underground through those years?

No, so it is absolutely the case. As a matter of fact, some of the things that we're doing with power and locking in these – we're getting some off-take agreements on some solar power. That absolutely is giving us the hedge against any potential increases in fuel price, that type of stuff, to make it abundantly clear that this project is economic out of 2031 with the low-grade stockpiles. Okay. So that remains the base case. Okay. Yes. That's all I have. Thanks, guys. Thank you. One moment for our next question.

Our next question comes from the line of Mohamed Sidby from CIBC World Markets Inc. Hi, Clive and thanks for the good work. It's Mohamed Sidby from CIDT on behalf of Canada. She's going to mentor right now. Most of my questions have been answered, but I just wanted to clarify on the fake poll on the Anaconda area of study, where did you learn something that you never had discovered on the paper paper? I am in the South Jump PLAY de laughing mindset.

say that obviously we got to wait until the study comes out to get the results, but as of right now we see no reason that our current kind of projections don't hold. I mean obviously what we're doing is we're doing the studies to prove it, but at the end of the day as far as how the phase two gets scheduled if we go.

we see holding the schedule on that. If we do phase two, it'll be a 2026 kind of into production. That's perfect. Thanks for that, caller. And then just a final question on me. I think more on the modeling front, really. Thinking about the mathematics on full county, should we expect these to go to in Q2? Or maybe it will be sometime later, younger, yeah?

I heard something about MOSBOT in Q2 I thought. Yeah, exactly. Sorry, just a question on the MOSBOT unsold ounces. The unsold ounces from Q1, should we expect that to be sold in Q2 or would it be later during the year? Yeah, it's just a timing issue of getting it through customs because it's on an icon. It doesn't always work perfectly with a quarter end. So, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay, perfect. Thank you. I'll add everything on mine. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again.

Our next question comes from the line of Harman Puri from Bank of America Securities. Hi, operator. Thank you, and thank you for the update today. Most of my questions have actually been answered. I just have another sort of modeling question. Can you provide us with some color on sort of the grade profile at SACOLA? In the results, you noted that you had a favorable mine-phasing sequence start to 2023. Humor strikes the thirddead you hold Let's continue

2.2 or 2.3, that is our annual number. Yeah, I mean, we were right on budget in Q1 for grades, like we're right on budget. Okay, okay, thank you. Thank you. At this time, I would now like to turn the conference back over to Clive Johnson for closing remarks. Currently thePrince v prevention who lands on the ArbDev Schrunk on June 22nd, 2021.

Okay, well thanks everyone for taking the time to perhaps present the Q1 results and talk about our plans going forward. So thank you all very much. Have a good day.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Q1 2023 B2Gold Corp Earnings Call

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