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2020 Gramalote Joint Venture Budget
Based on an amended and restated shareholders agreement with Anglogold Ashanti ("AngloGold"), on January 1, 2020 B2Gold became the operator of the joint venture Gramalote Gold Project in Colombia. Under the terms of the agreement, B2Gold will sole fund the first $13.9 million of expenditures on the Gramalote Project (the "Sole Fund Amount"), following which B2Gold will hold a 50% ownership interest in the joint venture (B2Gold currently holds a 48.3% interest). Both joint venture partners will continue to have equal representation on the joint venture management committee. Following the expenditure of the Sole Fund Amount, each joint venture partner will fund its share of expenditures pro rata.
The 2020 budget for the project is $37.4 million and under the terms of the agreement B2Gold will fund $25.7 million (including the Sole Fund Amount). The budget will fund 42,500 metres of infill drilling and 7,645 metres of geotechnical drilling for site infrastructure. The purpose of the infill drilling is to confirm and upgrade the Inferred Mineral Resources to Indicated status and is expected to be completed by the end of May 2020. The budget will also fund additional feasibility work including an updated Mineral Resource estimate, detailed mine planning, additional environmental studies, metallurgical test work, engineering and detailed economic analysis.
B2Gold plans to announce the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Gramalote Project within the week of January 20, 2020 and to complete a final feasibility study by December 31, 2020. With prior testing programs that have been completed and the high level of engineering performed in 2017 for an internal pre-feasibility study, the engineering work remaining to get to final feasibility is not extensive.
The Environmental Impact Study and Project Implementation Plans for the Gramalote Project have been fully approved by the National Authority of Environmental Licenses of Colombia. Due to the desired modifications to the processing plant and infrastructure locations, a Modified Environment Impact Study and a Modified Project Implementation plan were submitted and are currently in the final approval process. If the final economics of the feasibility study are positive and the joint venture makes the decision to develop Gramalote as an open-pit gold mine, B2Gold would utilize its proven internal mine construction team to build the mine and mill facilities.
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