B2Gold spending $675 million on new gold mine build in Nunavut
Vancouver’s B2Gold is building its first mine in Canada, to the tune of nearly C$2 billion, in southwestern Nunavut.
Until just this year, B2Gold has focused on gold mining entirely outside of Canada. It has operating mines in Mali, Namibia and the Philippines.
But in April this year, the company bought Sabina Gold and Silver Corp. and its Back River Gold District in Nunavut for C$1.2 billion.
The district is along an 80-kilometre belt that contains six gold properties. One of those properties — the Goose — is the one currently being developed.
B2Gold plans to develop the Goose deposit as a combined open pit and underground operation. According to a B2Gold investor presentation, the Goose gold property is one of the highest grade undeveloped gold properties in the world.
In a construction update today, B2Gold said its construction budget for the new mine is C$890 million ($675m). The company used an ice road over the winter to bring in all the construction equipment needed to develop the mine and build a mill. B2Gold expects the mill to be in operation by the first quarter of 2025.
The company originally estimated the capital spend at C$800 million ($606m), but in its update today, it said will spend an additional C$90 million ($68m) to accelerate underground mining in order to increase annual gold production for the first five years of the mine’s operations, with average annual production estimated at 300,000 ounces per year.
