Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to B2Gold Corporation's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the conference over to Clive Johnson, President and CEO of B2Gold. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Isha. Welcome, everyone, to as Isha said to our conference call to discuss the results of the third quarter of 2023. I want to say a few introductory words, and then I'm going to pass it on. We have our Board here in Vancouver, most of our executive team, and you're going to hear from me and then Mike will walk us through, Michael Cinnamond our CFO, will walk us through the financial results for the quarter, and then Bill Lytle, COO, will walk us through an update on -- a brief update on projects around the mines, but also on the development projects, what we're doing and [indiscernible] update also, also talk about the way forward and potential for Mali expansion to give you a good update on that. Many of you have seen the results, of course, through the filing that was done yesterday. We're pleased with the results for the third quarter. We had another solid quarter and some good costs that are well run by our extremely good operating teams on all of the sites. Michael will take you through some of that. But as importantly as the results for the quarter are, I think we're really very comfortable about being on track for our guidance for 2023. So we'll update you on that and tell you why obviously, working for Fekola, scheduled for a good quarter coming up in the fourth quarter. We'll talk more in more detail about that. In terms of where we are and our focus a little bit and talk about looking forward a bit and some strategy where the key point as always is to continue to be a responsible miner and optimize the gold production from our existing mines to continue [indiscernible] we do on the ESG front…

Good. Thank you, Clive. I'm going to report the quarter and give you also an overview of how we see out turning for the year and the guidance we've given for full year. So a solid quarter. Starting on the revenue side. We sold 249,000 ounces at an average price of $1,920 per ounce for revenues of $478 million. And I should say, overall, sales were a bit higher than budget, and we're about 16,000 ounces ahead probably on the budget side where we sales, and we think we'll see that go through that -- those were sales that were sold out from opening inventory. We think for the year, we'll see us between that as well. So we should be slightly ahead sales-wise versus production for the year. On the production side for the Q, total coal produced from our 3 operating mines 225,000 ounces, which is just slightly 8,000 ounces less than budget. And that's the [indiscernible] of some offsets. I think on the Fekola side, Fekola is about 13,000 ounces under budget, and it was impacted really by the grade and lower mill feed grade that was going through. Fekola is hit by significant precipitation in the third quarter that didn't allow us to mine some of the basic higher grade materials as quickly as we thought, so was supplemented with stockpiled -- lower grade stockpile material. We do expect that we are now in the [indiscernible] and running that material, and we expect that we will more than catch up in Q4. We actually expect to be budget for Fekola in Q4. So that was a temporary rain-induced event. I think that you'll see us catch up as we go through into Q4. Both of those operations are actually ahead of budget production-wise, [indiscernible] 51,000 ounces,…

Okay. Thanks, Mike. Just maybe a little on Otjikoto, as we said, we're going to be seeing the end of over the mining, but we do have some great stockpiles in the future. We've had some encouraging results potentially continue underground mining more about that as we keep drilling. So there's significant potential to produce beyond when they open pit. [indiscernible] complemented by some other better underground grade material. So just so people are aware of that because they'll be there for a significant amount of time, perhaps more around 100,000 ounce a year in the future than the we're at right now. So we'll see how that develops. With that, I'll pass it over to Bill.

Yes. Thanks, Clive. I think a lot of the things I was going to talk about have been hinted at or even talked about a little bit. I just want to provide some more color to some of the issues. And I'll start. Operationally, Mike did a great job explaining everything. I think the key really there is to really highlight that we -- as far as Q4, we see everything on track. We're going to have a really good quarter in particular, at Fekola getting out to hit the bottom of Phase 6. And at Otjikoto, we're going to have a big quarter as well. So as Mike said, we're on track to meet our guidance. Looking at Fekola regional a little bit, I'd just put a little bit of history in place, so everyone remembers, we originally had internally last year come out with a preliminary economic assessment and then did a feasibility study, which we were presenting to the government when they halted us to kind of take a look at this new mining code and this new local content law. But the key thing, as you need to know is that study was done, and it was economic. And as part of that, the government actually let us start to build all the infrastructure. So the infrastructure for mining in that area is actually complete. And the reason I tell you that is it's important to understand kind of the process as we go forward. Now that they've got these laws in place, they have to create an implementation decree for both of them. We were down there, I guess, it was a couple of weeks ago talking to our team down there about the local content and how does that impact what we're doing. And…

No, I think that's good update. Bill, I think with that, we'll open up to questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions]. The first question comes from Ovais Habib with Scotiabank.

Congrats on a good quarter. Again, this is despite the rainy season in the West Africa and great to see the development of Goose progressing well. Actually, also great to see costs coming in below guidance as well. So just a couple of questions from me. My first question is regarding the new mining code in Mali. So from what I understand, once the decree has been provided to B2, B2 then applies for the permit or the exportation permit and then kind of moves forward with some sort of a trucking option. Does that negotiations that you're having with the Malian government right now, does that impact how you're looking at the stand-alone operation as well? Can you provide a little bit more color on that?

So I'll happily take it. Of course, Ovais, I mean, everything has to be on the table now. Certainly, the new '23 code does apply to anything regional. And quite frankly, without the decree, we can't really say which way we're going to go, but we have to look at both of them within the lens of the new decree for sure.

And what I'm trying to ask, Bill, is if you do get the decree, I mean, and you do go forward with the trucking option, is there a chance that negotiation could continue and then you get a better kind of understanding in economics for the standalone mill? Or is that kind of setting stone once you get the decree for, let's say, the initial start of Anaconda?

Yes. So I think conceptually, what you're saying is right, but we just don't know at this point, right? Because the decree hasn't come out, we haven't had the discussions sit down with the government. I mean, Clive, he hinted at it, but when we were down there just recently talking about local content, we did meet with the Minister of Mines. And the one thing he did say is he likes what B2 does and they do want mining in the country. So how that all plays itself out is yet to be seen, but that will all come out of the discussions after the decree.

I think one of the interesting things, Ovais, was the fact that Bill touched on it was that even though we were delaying it in the permit because of the mining audit, the new code, et cetera, the government encouraged us to go ahead and build the infrastructure for trucking ore. So, most of the infrastructure is in place ready to go. So therefore, the government was anticipating by encouraging us to go ahead and build the infrastructure even though we didn't have a permit to actually work, which is signal from the government that they clearly want to see that happen. For sure, obviously, everyone knows that Mali is looking for increased revenue, everyone difficult times, et cetera, in many ways. So clearly, gold mine and the 20% ownership where wherever it's going to be more than that under the new code of the area about the potential expansion area, not Fekola, but the potential expansion areas of the Fekola Complex in the North are great interest to the government in terms of increasing revenues. So they should be highly motivated to get permitted in our hands and get mining as soon as possible. So we're encouraged by that, and we'll see how the discussions go.

Just switching gears, I guess, to the Goose project. You guys were doing a lot of exploration work drilling in the area. When do we expect some results? And how kind of premier results looking so far?

Yes. I think we touched on that earlier, but we are -- a lot of drilling has been going on. We're starting to get results in, and we're going to have new results for you next week, giving you detailed updates on what we're seeing from that Goose drilling down including some assets. So we're very encouraged by what we're seeing so far, once again in replicating some of the grades before but also looking further down plunge and further opportunities. So I think potential there. And of course, as I said earlier, Sabina was understandably company trying to build do not spend a lot of money on exploration. It was $5 million a year, and we had over Canadian, we had over $20 million this year and even more looking forward into next year. So you'll get a good update on that next week.

And then just in terms of the drilling that you're doing, I mean, you guys had -- when we were at that site, you guys gave us an update on the underground development that had already been completed. Is there any drilling that's going from -- taking place from underground as well? Or is it just mostly surface drilling right now?

Do you want take that?

The plan is certainly the first half of the year, the priority is actually to develop towards the ore. So that's the priority. So we'll continue drilling from surface. As soon as we have companies opened up for us to drill from underground will be added. There is already an underground rig on site. So as soon as we can, we'll replace that surface drilling with underground drilling, Ovais.

The next question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets.

I just wanted to go a little bit further into the options for Fekola. And I know you touched upon it a little bit, but could you just sort of reiterate what you think, like where you think additional ore sources would come from? Should you not get your permits for the satellite deposits?

Well, if we don't get the -- if we don't get any approvals for the satellite deposit, you would have to stay inside of the mid and handy permit. So that's Fekola, that's Cardinal, and that's continued to develop the Fekola underground, but we wouldn't see any ore in '24 there.

So like I know you mentioned that you were looking at ways to mitigate the 18,000 ounces that you had expected this year by accelerating Cardinal. I was just wondering if that could extend into 2024 or not?

Absolutely.

All right. So you do have opportunities. Could you just quantify like what Cardinal could potentially add to the fold?

No, I can't really quantify because we're right in the middle of doing that as far as our budget season, so it would be a bit premature. But I will tell you that we are looking at how does Cardinal fit in? Are there additional ways to mine Cardinal in advance rate while we wait, all those things are on the table.

And then I just wanted to ask about Otjikoto. Could you just tell me what the levels of the stockpiles are? I don't think I have that anywhere. So that you will be -- that you'll be processing once the underground and the open pit ore mined out in tons and grade if you have it?

Yes. I don't have it in tones and grade. , maybe you know -- now I'm speaking just from memory, and I'll correct myself if it's wrong. But I know we have more than 10 million tones on the stockpile and I believe it's at 0.404 grams.

So you still want to--

Sorry, answer to your question.

So I was just wondering on the mill, did you want to continue to run it at the current levels if you were when you're processing the stockpiles?

Before we get to that I think at the end of the mine, Anita, I think there'll be close to 20 million tones of low grade sort of in the 0.44 to 0.48 gram per ton range. It's kind of a blend of low grade and mid-grade. So that's kind of where we'll be at the end of the mine life. So definitely 6 to 7 years of throughput available there to supplement with underground at the end of the open pit life. Can we talk about the mill, I think Anita is asking about would be?

Yes. So we have looked at what we, in fact, bring the mill back down. And the answer is we can, but we don't necessarily have to. Right now, the current life of mine shows us continuing to operate in that kind of 2.5 million to 3 million tones per annum and making a profit. It does require us, as you heard Clive indicate or Mike indicate, we're going to have to retrench all of the open pit workers, and we're going to have to bring our costs down. But it is profitable at those grades, and that's what the economics show for the next through 2031.

And can you just remind me what the close liability on it is in 10 years from now or 7 years?

Well, I guess we've recorded -- probably I don't have the exact number, probably will inflate itself up to somewhere more like 20 million by the time we're done.

Yes. And remembering that because the open pit is closing next year, we've already started concurrent reclamation. So a lot of the waste dumps are already under reclamation right now.

The next question comes from Carey MacRury with Canaccord Genuity.

Maybe just a follow-up on Fekola. Was the original plan before the delays on the regional for Fekola to kind of be in that 600,000 ounce range next year? I guess my question is, were there the regional should we be expecting production to be down at Fekola or was that expected to be growth at Fekola?

Yes. So the answer is yes, production will have to be less. But you have to -- if you go back, I think you really need to go back to kind of the technical studies we had when we put out our last technical report. It did show '24 is a down year, right? So we always projected maybe less than 600, but it will be whatever we're going to produce and whatever we get in the regional stuff for 2024. So it will be down.

And now that you're back in the high grade, can you give a sense of what sort of grades we should be expecting for Q4 at Fekola?

Yes, I think it's plus 2 grams. But Carey, you could calculate it, if you just look at what our range was and where we're at and you could do the calculation because we're saying we're going to be kind of at the lower end of our range.

The next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial.

Maybe I'll start off with Goose. Bill, you talked about the ice road and so the ice road is going to start in early September. You're waiting for it to be cold enough. Can you give us an idea of what specifically what kind of temperatures their sustained temperatures you're looking for before you can start?

No. What I can tell you is that we're looking for ice thicknesses, right? So basically, I think, once again, I hear up there, you want to start out with like a 1 meter thick of ice, then you can start dragging some of your containers up. And then as you get -- as it continues to freeze, it gets to heat sometimes in excess of 2 meters, that's when you can bring your heavier loads up in. And you said September, but it's actually will probably start in December on the Tundra, which freezes first and work our way out towards the water sources.

So I mean, it sounds like the team is ready to go right now on site. And so you're just basically measuring ice thicknesses or kind of waiting for the sort of green light to go ahead? You said you're targeting early December, just to clarify to start?

Yes. Well, that's right. So basically, the team will be put into place early December, that they've obviously got to make sure that all the equipment is operating. As I said, we've already done a full maintenance on it, but we've got to identify right now in the process of identifying which containers are going to come up first, loads, weights, all that stuff is happening at MLA right now. So that's kind of the early stuff we're working on right now.

And the total distance rose about 163 kilometers. If you build that over 2 months, 60 days, I guess, your target is roughly 3 kilometers per day, but you're building it from maybe 3 different fronts, right, from the middle and then from both endpoints? Is that it?

Yes, that's correct. And the key really is, remember, we're going to do the sea ice last. And so that's really where I think there's 20 or 30 kilometers of sea ice maybe 40, if I remember correctly. That's really the key stuff that has to freeze up, thicken up before we can go.

Okay, great. Maybe just shifting then to questions on Fekola has been answered. But on Calibre, can you share what your strategic intentions are with this with your 24% share in this? I mean I see from the financials ASICs still attractive, it's running around $1,200 an ounce. But what are your thoughts, medium or longer term with Calibre?

Yes, [indiscernible] have done a good job. I think it was a great deal that everybody want the -- the Nicaragua employees from the B2 tents stayed almost completely in place. And Calibre's got some good technical people, they do a good job of what they've done, and they continue to look to grow their production profile. So we're happy shareholders and they are good guys, well friends are doing a good job. We're happy with our investment going forward. I've always said to the Calibre guys, if you are -- whatever you're doing going forward looking for to bring the shareholder and we would consider position. But we're not in any rush to do that. And we're not -- we'll work with them and with Calibre and we like what they're doing, and we're happy to.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Clive Johnson for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Okay. Thanks all and of your participation and your good questions. And we look forward to continuing to update you, as I said, next thing out in terms of news would be the update on exploration in Back River, Goose and George. So thanks for your attention.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.