Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to B2Gold’s Third Quarter and Year-to-Date 2019 Financial Results Conference Call. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Clive Johnson, President and CEO. You may begin, Mr. Johnson.

Thanks, operator. Welcome everyone to our call today to discuss the Q3 financial results for 2019 and the year-to-date. We had a very strong quarter and a very strong year-to-date and this was driven by our excellent operating performance from the three mines Fekola, Masbate and Otjikoto. We're going to talk on them -- hand over to Mike in a minute to talk about some of the detail and the quarter results and we also have our whole team here on the phone to answer any questions and to give you a full update. We also in the quarter -- some of the highlights for me I guess in the quarter was -- in addition to the great performance was we completed the transaction with Calibre and it was seen for approximately $120 million of cash and shares and we will own 30% of Calibre going forward. I think it’s a very good transaction, that's good for some win-win-win. That's good for our employees, our former employees in Nicaragua who are now employed by Calibre. I think they have a very strong team and they have a similar corporate culture to B2Gold, and I think they’re going to be successful and we're happy to be a 30% shareholder of Calibre. For us it wasn't the main driving force behind changing our ownership in the Nicaraguan assets. It was really about the size of mines that we're building these days and it wasn't above politics and there wasn't any other reason. We liked the assets and we actually turned them over in very good shape to Calibre. So it was more about looking at our future and the kind of things we're looking to drive on with. Nicaragua was a huge success for B2Gold as our first producing assets and a…

Okay. Thanks, Clive. Great quarter, so happy to present results. Just before I do, just to remind everyone what the basis of presentation in these financials is consistent with the second quarter. Nicaraguan results in the financial statements are presented in the income statement as a one line item, income lost from discontinued operations and the balance sheet just as one line item in the asset section and the payables section. But when I discuss the results I am going to discuss it as presented and them I am also going to mention what it was if you included Nicaragua as well. So firstly, starting with the revenue line at $311 million for the year -- or for the quarter. And the revenue increase was mainly driven by a 23% increase in realized gold price but offset by a 10% decrease in ounces sold. Overall if you include Nicaragua, there was $382 million versus the prior year quarter of $324 million. And basically all operations were at or both -- in fact they're both budget in terms of production and in terms of sales. Then turning to production, production from continuing ops was 213,000 ounces, so that’s Fekola, Masbate and Otjikoto. And if you include the production from Nicaragua of 45,000, the total production for the quarter was 258,000 ounces which compares very well with budget of 242,000 ounces. That’s a quarterly record for Q3 and we already had a quarterly record production for Q2. So the good news continues. Breaking that down and talking a little bit about the individual components of it. Fekola was a 112,000 ounces for the quarter against a budget of 108,000, so 4,000 ounces ahead. I mean it’s really the same story that we talked about in the first two quarters of the year.…

Okay. Thanks, Mike. I think we'll open up to questions now.

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from the line of Geordie Mark with Haywood Securities. Your line is open.

Nice work on the quarter. I could see dividend coming out. That's great. And perhaps just in line with what you were saying, Clive, leaving the new shift for later and maybe as a segue from here, your comments on focusing on assets of scale. Just looking at Gramalote, what sort of makes sense there for yourselves and your partners in terms of relative scale of production on a gold production basis and asset life for that asset? Do you think you’re able to make any comments on that to give an idea of what you're thinking or…?

What we're doing now, we're working on an updated PEA, which we would hope to have done by early next year. But I think the most recent economic runs that have been done, I’ve been looking at something starting out at Gramalote ridge and we are talking about somewhere -- starting out of somewhere around 400,000 ounces a year. And if the infill drilling pans out and the other economic stays similar to what they did in the past in terms of mining costs and all those things, we’ll just see a lot of work done there and has a substantial to be pretty low cost producer with pretty robust economics, $1,500 gold. So the mine life -- what are we talking about guys? What are we -- do we -- mine life, I think we were talking about internally some of the most recent numbers around -- but I think Geordie, a lot of the details going to -- coming in and assessable, we feel that's something that we would like to share with our -- publicly to indicate why we like it so much more than we liked it a couple of years ago. The big driving force has been the new geologic modeling that's been done, that has showed a significantly better project and low strip ratio, great logistics, great metallurgy. Those are some of the keys to a low-grade ore body, and we've got all of those. So we're going to -- we'll be getting with the second drill now and so the key driver force will be the infill drilling. But so far, we like the looks of it a lot, but there's more work to be done, but not that much, actually, it's mainly infill drilling.

Okay. Maybe I'll just -- one point, moving across to Fekola. Just there was obviously some language on the solar plant there. Just thinking about, obviously, full year payback there? Is there a particular cost benefit on the scale of that production, on the scale of that capacity at 30 megawatts? And on that basis, given the collective capacity of, I guess, fuel plus solar, if Anaconda was to make hay, ultimately, would you draw from the same plant or would you do something separate? I'll leave it there. Thanks.

Well, yes. I mean, Dennis, I think Dennis is on the line, he can talk a bit more to the solar, but I think the concept would be if Anaconda becomes something that becomes mineable, which we're seeing the -- just the saprolite zone continues to expand, so we're kind of keen on that as being -- if that was sustainable. But definitely, you'd be looking to perhaps shift hard to some extent, you'd be looking at perhaps expanding the solar plant, those types of things are our options. I'll let Dennis answer the other question about the solar. Dennis are you on?

Yes, Clive. The solar plant is going to provide about when the expansion is up and we're running at that higher rate, provides about 18% of the power, it drops the process operating costs by a little over 7%. And it does provide additional -- it lets us do maintenance during the day on the units, things like that. So we can draw more power from the plant simply because of the maintenance schedule. We don't need the plus-2 scenario that we have in the power plant. We can almost go to a plus-1 scenario because of the daytime maintenance that the solar plant creates. And the solar plant is being built to where it could actually be expanded without too much trouble also. Hope that helps.

Lawson Winder with Bank of America. Your line is open.

I think I'd like to also just echo those comments that I commend you on introducing the dividend and particularly at a competitive yield. And then Clive I definitely agree with your comments that -- I think this is a milestone for B2Gold. So with that said, a question on Gramalote. So Clive, I mean, you mentioned that, obviously, one of the big sort of challenges or next big steps here is getting the infill drilling done. That makes a lot of sense. But just looking beyond that, assuming the geological model checks out, the infill drilling confirms everything you'd hoped, what do you see as the biggest challenge to getting Gramalote built?

Well, permitting is always one of the challenges of our business would be -- we do have an environmental effect. This has been already accepted with the government. So there's various steps to go along the way to continue to -- the permitting process. But we're now in infill drill, which is definitely one of the best places to be in Colombia. In terms of pro mining, there's both -- if you were to fly over Colombia in a helicopter and you knew nothing about mining and someone asks you to pick the best spot in the country to build the first large open-pit gold mine, you'd pick Gramalote. It's generally low in hills. It's not an altitude. It's not steep terrain. There's not a lot of local crops and vegetation. Anglo has done an excellent job working with the local people and working with the -- just some miners and the local population. So we're very popular there and we think that’s a lot of credit to AGA. And taking over as operator, we're going to inherit a lot of the people, the AGA people, that have been working so hard, they're on permitting and all the other social issues, they're going to stay where they are, they're going to be managed by B2Gold, but and also AGA will have a strong presence as part of the management committee. So I think we think we're in really good shape there. And frankly, because of -- and AGA's a big company, and they probably -- they do things methodically, and they spend a little more money than we would sometimes and do a little more work than we would sometimes on things like metallurgy and engineering, et cetera. It's a little risk reward thing. So we benefit from that after many years. And the fact that there was a lot of good work done by AGA in terms of the metallurgy in terms of engineering. So there's not a lot of risk that we see in terms of those things. In terms of the ore body itself, and Tom can speak to it if he like it, but it's a very homogeneous, low-grade ore body. So we're really hopeful that the infill drilling is going to bring no negative surprises. We will have the results of that starting in July, I guess in May, Tom?

May.

Of next year. So yes, we see it as a very advanced project, and much more advanced than you would normally expect to be when a significant portion of that is actually infer. So the good news is it's advanced -- in permitting it's advanced,, and social issues is well advanced and all the other things that make up our feasibility study, a detailed -- engineering and stuff. But there'll be some more detailed engineering and some more work to be done on looking at the plant and stuff. But we're cautiously optimistic that this can potentially be a significant low-cost producer. And that's one of the reasons why our focus is organic growth, as I've said it many times in these calls, I'll say it again, you're not going to see any significant M&A from us because why would we buy anything, when you've got the kind of assets we have, Gramalote, the potential for additional ounces at Fekola, et cetera, et cetera. So we're going to see the course of that and Gramalote potentially becomes an important part. Another note on that, I guess, one of our -- I think one of our reasons for our success will be to the strength of our executive team and our technical and all the people that work for us, a tremendous amount of experience. And Dale Craig who is a Vice President at B2Gold has offered to go down and -- asked to go out and be the country manager in Colombia for B2Gold. And I think that's a great move for Dale and for us. I'm a bit jealous actually, but -- a nice place to work. But at the end of the day, Dale who came to us when we originally acquired the Nicaraguan asset. So he was country manager in Nicaragua, then he was promoted to come to Vancouver, and he wanted to go to the Colombia and have this experience. So that's what I think is one of the keys to our success, is the bench strength, the ability to have this incredible team of people around the world that can slot into different projects and different opportunities as they come up. And of course, if we get to the point of building Gramalote, it will be our in-house construction team who has done such a fantastic job and is currently doing the expansion of Fekola. So yes, we're cautiously optimistic that Gramalote has got a really good shot to be a low-cost open-pit goldmine.

I look forward to further updates on Gramalote. Thanks for those comments, Clive. And then, Mike, maybe just a question for you on -- or perhaps someone else, but I think this one's going towards Mike on Montana, the extension pit. You highlighted that the permits or the approvals rather could be delayed into 2020. I'm just curious how many approvals are needed and what are they? And then finally, I mean, if there's any more slippage there, is there any risk to the guidance you guys have provided preliminarily for 2020 there with 200,000 to 210,000 ounces?

Well, I think to answer the first part of your comment or your question, the -- I think we're right at the -- we've got one more final approval to go and then we'll have rolled -- we think we're ready to go -- other than that, we think we're ready to go on Montana. So that's why we think it will either happen a bit later now in Q4 or early 2020. In terms of the guidance, as you likely said, we're going to hit guidance at the upper end. In terms of sensitivity to next year, yes, Montana's not in there, there might be a slight slippage, but it won't be very significant, certainly not in the scheme of B2 production overall. And we're also going to look at that as part of budgeting, just to the -- what we would do if it didn't come in right at the start of 2020. But right now, that's when we expect it.

As Mike said, it would have a minimal impact if it doesn't come in at all. But I think it's important to point out that we're not looking for a new permit, it's a consolidation of the Montana permit that we already have. There's a lot of pressures in the Philippines for this having been done before. So we're not doing anything that's outside -- that's outside the norm and we've gone through a partner and a bureaucratic process, as we see in many countries, we're at the final, final stages of -- we don't anticipate -- we anticipate getting that -- the final approvals very shortly here.

And then, Mike, just -- actually, one quick follow-up on your comments around Namibia. Certainly, the costs in Namibia this year have been remarkable to say the least. You highlighted several factors that have contributed to that. And I'm just assuming no change in FX from here, are there any sort of pressures that could work the other way going into 2020 or would you consider some of these cost savings sustainable? I mean, assuming no change to the FX?

Well, we've budgeted -- and let me put it in context, we've budgeted when we sort of reforecast for ourselves, what we thought the costs looked like at the end of the year, we've assumed that the Namibia costs will be on budget. So we did have some cost savings through the year. Some of that is related to where we're mining and the ore we're mining. The FX rate, we'll probably budget somewhere around 14.5 and 15 for Namibia and foreign exchange rate for 2020. And so I guess, you can factor that into whatever you've got in your model, but I don't think we're planning that we have sustained cost savings that we've seen there this year. For next year, the budget will be pretty consistent with how we budgeted this year.

And then are you seeing any -- where I'm going with this, just on the labor side, with the depreciation and the currency. Are you seeing any pressure on labor costs there?

Labor costs, we have a union agreement, collective bargain agreement there, they take off a little bit each year, just reflecting something a little over, I guess inflation rates are standard growth. We don't see any particular pressure on the labor costs next year. Again, it will be based on what your FX rate is, I assume, like I said, we'll probably budget somewhere between 14.5 and 15.

Fortunately, a lot of mines in Namibia have shut down over the last number of years, various types of mines. So these are pretty good jobs, and these are well paid -- well paying jobs, and we've got tremendous support from the government and recently had a successful negotiation with the unions again. So they're -- these are jobs that are very much, I think, in demand.

[Operator Instructions]. Chris Thompson with PI Financial.

A lot of my questions have already been answered. But just moving to Otjikoto quickly. Nice to see the high grade from Wolfshag hitting the mill. When are we going to get a better idea of a life of mine plan for the mine here?

Who wants to take that, Bill Lytle just left here, he's heading to the Philippines. Mike, do you want to take that on?

Well, I think there'll be -- for Wolfshag, the -- what we've always been considering is when -- how big we think the open pit will be versus the underground. So we're still looking at that. It's probably a waiting or sort of -- I thought that maybe going underground earlier might be the most profitable option. But that will be reflected in the mine plan and the new reserves and resources that are done by the end of the year or for the AIF in Q1 next year. So in terms of understanding how that fits into a mine plan. I think that's when it's going to be available.

And then just quickly, finally, I just want to make sure my facts are right. A new resource for Fekola before the end of the year. Is that right?

Yes, that's right.

Michael Fairbairn with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

And again, congrats on the great quarter. I've just got a couple of questions on Fekola, if I could. Starting with just the stockpile that you have there? I know you guys continued to process some of the lower-grade stockpile that you have available, are you able to give any -- us any kind of a sense of how large that stockpile is? And what kind of grade we're looking at there?

Dennis, you on?

Yes, I'm on. Yes. Right now, we're -- we've got a low-grade stockpile of about 3.5 million tonnes, and that will continue to grow. Grade of that is running just over a gram, 1.1 gram a tonne.

And if I remember correctly, in your mine plan, you should start to get into -- start mining some of that high-grade core deposit. If that starts to come out in Q4, would that be stockpiled as well until 2020? Or would that start to go through the mill starting in Q4?

Yes. So we will have some stockpiles of high-grade at the end of the year, what we estimate. So some of it will go through the mill in Q4, but a lot of it will be stockpiled as well and be processed in the first quarter.

And one more, if I could. Just on the shareholder loans that you guys have with the government of Mali. Are you able to give us any type of updates on where those sit? Or when you're expecting this to be fully repaid?

Yes, we can give a sort of indicator. Again, it's based on the gold prices, right, and production levels. They haven't repaid them yet. They're not repayable, no ordinary dividends are declarable until our construction loans are repaid. And once those are repaid, then the ordinary dividends that attribute to the 10% shareholding that the government in Mali has, will be applied against repaying the loans of dividend. And as the guide, it varies. It depends on the gold price and as the mine plan changes. But I think broadly speaking, we're talking about 2022, 2023.

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to the presenters for closing remarks.

Okay. Well, thanks, everyone, for taking the time to dial in on the call, and thanks for your very good questions. Any further details on any topic, feel free to reach out to Ian and he'll put you in touch with the person most able to answer your questions. So thanks again, and we look forward to talking to you soon.

This concludes B2Gold's Third Quarter and Year-To-Date 2019 Financial Results Conference Call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.