B2Gold ahead of Back River schedule

In addition to having built several miners over the past decade, the B2Gold team also has mine-building experience in a similar Arctic environment when it built the Kupol mine in Russia while at Bema Gold. Goose is due to produce about 300,000ozpa, with the first production in the March quarter of 2025.

"We are well into construction. We have six ships on the way up to the Northern Sea from Quebec, then coming down the Beaufort inlet to the landing area where we take everything off the barges and get them out before the ocean freezes, and build 160km of ice roads. This is right up our wheelhouse. It's all about logistics. We are already standing up the mill building that was supposed to happen next year, so we're ahead of schedule in some areas," said Johnson.

Johnson credits the work of Sabina, which has enabled a smooth transition and the ability to hit the ground running with the construction.

"Credit where credit's due, Sabina did a lot of good work. They did a good job of permitting; they were getting the equipment orders for the camp and we're getting ready to get going on constructing it. They did a great job in human relations, so we inherited a good friendship [with local communities], and they did a great job bringing the project forward, so we were able to bring our financial firepower and construction technical expertise to it," said Johnson.

As with many B2Gold acquisitions, Johnson expects Back River to have a long exploration tail, which should eventually see the company be able to extend the mine life or expand production possibly.

"Sabina was not spending a lot of money in exploration. They had a $5 million exhibition budget last year and we are $28 million this year, with five rigs there. This is elephant country. We're on to a really good deposit, and it's on an 80km formation with tremendous potential. I don't think I've seen our expedition people as excited since Kupol. It's a great project," said Johnson.

West Africa

Like many companies with projects in West Africa, B2Gold's share price has suffered due to the political situation in Mali, where its Fekola mine is located, and other countries this year. Johnson said the company monitors the situation closely and has so far not seen any reason for concern.

"Mali remains a very good country to be in gold mines. … The Malian government has brought a new mining code, and they've signalled that they are looking for more government ownership and they're looking at the tax-revenue split."

"But it publicly made it clear that it does not look back to any previous conventions. We had a 2012 convention, and at the end of the day, we spent over half a billion dollars to build a mill and expand it twice to be now over 600,000oz," said Johnson.

The company is looking at further expansion at Fekola, with a study due later this year to maybe build a second mill. It is also exploring in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire.

"We are still looking at opportunities in West Africa, but we can offer our shareholders some geopolitical diversification, which is good for the company. We will still be entrepreneurial, and hopefully, we'll continue to deliver by making acquisition ideas. We are very open to doing M&A, but we're not looking at any M&A right now. We will never do two mills at the same time, so no more M&A for development projects," said Johnson.

Johnson does not think B2Gold will be in the running for any assets that Newmont decides to divest as part of its $2 billion in disposals following its acquisition of Newcrest Mining.

"If there is an asset that is too small for Newmont, I don't think we're going to win a bidding war because there are companies that need acquisitions more than we do, and will take more risk hoping they will find more gold. We're not going to win a bidding war because we're never going to overpay," said Johnson.