Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to B2Gold Corporation's First Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Clive Johnson, President and CEO of B2Gold. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our call to discuss our first quarter 2024 operating financial results and to give you a corporate update as well. Many of you or all of you will seen the news, which just come out, that gives quite a lot of detail. We're off to a solid start for 2024. We produced over 225,000 ounces of the production, of course, it’s on the basis in line with what we expected with all three B2Gold operating lines performing well. Importantly, cash operating costs and all sustaining costs in the first quarter both came in well-below our annual guidance ranges, and Michael will you a lot more insight, he will be talking in short and give you a little more detail, but a very strong quarter, excellent financial position going forward, the mines are all operating very well. Through 2024 and what we have described as a transitional year for B2Gold, we have made strong progress on two of our most important items for the year. Firstly, we've had some encouraging discussions with the Mali government throughout the start of 2024, it's really important to stress, got to expect some rumors out and irresponsible journalists about their facts of the matters as backed recently, there's been absolutely zero indications and the government of Mali is considering nationalized western gold mines. On the contrary, we have had productive dialogue with the government on how our opportunity in regional is considered in the long-term future of the Fekola complex, and the government has expressed a desire to fast-acting with exploration program once the decision is agreed in the mid-2023 mining code is finalized. We believe over the next few months, potentially Mali government to look forward and starting to truck, following from what we…

Thanks, Todd. So I'll just jump into the operations. First late Fekola, we produced just under 120,000 ounces of gold, which is in line with our guidance. Cash operating costs were well below our annual guidance range, and all-in-sustaining costs of $1,436 per ounce of gold sold. It was at the low end of our guidance range. So, also as a reminder, I think Fekola, 2024, Fekola is a transitional year where we estimated that gold production would be lower than prior years, and we have a lot of capital programs ongoing. This year, the research was complete in the year. And for 2025, this trend should reverse, and 2025 gold production should increase, and all-in-sustaining cost drop as capital programs get completed. Moving to Masbate, we have another excellent quarter of Masbate with mine producing almost 48,000 ounces of gold. Cash operating costs and all-in-sustaining costs were both well below our annual guidance ranges. Fuel, lower fuel prices definitely contributed to our overall operations at Otjikoto. So Masbate has led a very strong operating cash flow, and we anticipate continuing to review here at baseball prices. Finally, last but not least, at Otjikoto, we continued our momentum from a very strong fourth quarter in 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, Otjikoto produced just over 45,000 ounces of coal. And like Masbate, both cash operating costs and all-in-sustaining costs were well below our annual guidance rates. I'd say for Otjikoto, we also benefited from a weaker Namibian dollar as well as higher production, lower fuel prices, we also had a weaker Namibian dollar, which helps our costs due at dollar terms. And also, excitingly, we look forward to continue to advance the envelope discovery, which we think has the potential to expand underground mining in Otjikoto perhaps into the…

Yes. Thanks Mike. So, I'll quickly touch on the Goose construction progress. I think we've signaled very clearly that this was on a critical path to have success. And I'll tell you that I think the team did a phenomenal job bringing everything down. Despite high snow year an El Niño year, which was a bit of an anomaly, we were able to bring everything down from the marine landing area. This significantly derisk the remaining construction schedule. And now we have everything that we need basically to build out the Goose project on site. And just to remind everybody out of what we brought down, some of the key things we brought down almost 19 million liters of fuel, all of the modular units necessary to expand the camp to 500, which will allow us to get through construction. All of the stuff necessary to build the mill steel and rebar. All those cement necessary, more than 3,000 bags -- more 4,000 bags actually. And all the -- one of the key things is all the reagents necessary to commission and operate the mill starting in 2025. So, at the end of the day, as Mike said and Clive alluded to, the mill itself is ready -- would be ready to go in Q1 2025. The construction team has done a great job of coming in and grabbing hold this project and making a B2 type construction. The mill construction does remain on schedule. We had previously told the market that we are, in fact, ahead in some areas, installation of the ball mill is progressing ahead of schedule. All the shale sections are in, the discharge heads, [indiscernible] and bearings have all been completed. What really is slightly behind schedule is the open pit and underground. That really relates to the commissioning of the equipment and getting some of the people in during some of these heavy snow days. The current schedule indicates that approximately three months must be added, and that really is to allow us to mine out some of the open pit and underground to allow us to get the appropriate amount of material on the stockpile to start the mill. So, with that, we're talking about first full quarter in Q2 2025 and that, of course, does reduce what we're going to produce in 2025, but I do want to indicate that it's not like those ounces are lost, they have just been pushed into 2026. So, instead of having the first five years at plus 300,000, now we're talking in the first five years at 310,000 plus. So, overall, I guess, I'd say I remain very confident in the path forward for Goose and this is absolutely a world-class operation that moving in production in Q2 2025. With that, I will turn it back to you, Clive, for questions.

Can you talk a little bit about the trade-offs going forward about capital?

Yes. There were some questions on whether or not we were going to be on budget given the new schedule. And I'd say we're working through that right now, but just because the road just closed, I can't tell you exactly where we're at. There's going to be some over, there are going to be some unders. But remember, right now, the 2024-2025 when our ice roads season is opening. So, what we're seeing is we're actually anything which would be kind of in that critical spares for 2024, 2025, we're ordering right now. So, we'll be able to give you actual costs for what our carrying costs are going to be but also, we've done a good job kind of looking at what a B2Gold design would look like. Certainly, John Rajala has looked at reagent consumption. Can we bring those down? The answer is yes. We've talked about the actual fuel cost, Mike alluded to already that some of the other operations are under cost. So we're seeing how that impacts the Goose Projects. We're working with vendors to see if they can carry stock as opposed to us ordering it and that's putting it into our critical spare inventory. And probably one of the big ones is the labor. So the labor obviously, is a function of what has to be done. Given the fact that we're actually ahead of construction in some areas, we feel like we can certainly flat most cost a little bit to make sure that we remain material that budget.

Okay. Thanks, Bill. I think analysts questions. I think the operator will now move to Q&A.

Certainly. We will now begin the analyst question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Ovais Habib with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys and B2Gold team. Congrats on completing a successful ice road season at Goose. Just a couple of questions from me, Clive. Number one, starting off with Mali. In regards to the 2023 Mali mining code, obviously, B2 is having discussions with Mali. Barrick is having their own discussions with Mali on Fekola and resolutives like you're having discussions as well. So the question is, are you all asking for the same terms? Or are the terms specific to each of your projects? I'm just trying to figure out how is Mali looking to form a new kind of set of terms for the 2023 mining co?

Sure, a good question, Ovais. Everyone is in a slightly different situation because of the time frame in terms of some of the mining ventures that were signed with the government, so we are -- as you know, the government's acknowledged sometime again that Fekola is perhaps followed by law over the 2012 mining coal that we sell that mining license to 2014 – 2024. So that's very positive from our point of view. And now the conversations with the government are really around the implementation of the [indiscernible], which, of course, the regional opportunity, they're all under an exploration license still they need to move to an expectation license. So the region will be subject to the 2023 planning code, yes, we feel confident that we've got some pretty robust economics there, and I'm looking forward to realize final agreement. I can't speak for Barrick or anybody else, but everyone has a difference – everyone has their own particular license and issues and Barrick and others are going to be down there as we will be over the next while to try and finalize the government. But we are in a different situation. So we're the only company in Mali that I know that has something that can quickly turn into more revenue for the company and for our partner. They cover Mali by trucking the ore and that could be a significant amount of revenue. When you look at what we're projecting now, if you look at that numbers, the regional production is very – to be very important to the future of Fekola. Of course, trucking the ore down, the roads are built we're ready to go. So we're in a different situation. It's up to Barrick and Mercer, let us speak for themselves, but we're confident…

And just a follow-up on that in terms of assuming the negotiations goes well, and all the terms are agreed upon, how fast can you get the exploitation permit once everything is set in motion?

Well, if we reach agreement in the near term, which we're hoping to do, then the exploitation license, apparently the government's interested in fast-tracking that. So that could be hopefully a few months potentially, and then we've got some prestripping to do. But we're pretty much ready to go. We derisked the project in the sense that we have built the facilities, we built the roads, and we're ready to go. So that could be a very quick opportunity. Bill, how many stripping we do for?

Three months.

Three months stripping and then we'll be over.

And then just switching gears to the Goose project, as you mentioned, B2 is currently in the midst of an infill drill program in the underground component of Goose. I just wanted to understand, and maybe this is a question for Bill or Vic as well, is the purpose of the drill program to increase confidence in the ore body, to include it into the mine plan going into 2025? Or is there a worry about the geological model that was built by the previous owners? Maybe some color on that, please.

Not at all. The infill that we've done to date, we did quite a bit last year, has certainly corroborated or supported the Sabina model. The infill is merely to get the indicated resources to our standard. And that also improves or helps improve the design that the engineers need to do. But there's no question about the model. It's solid. We understand what the controls are and the results we've got have pretty much concerned our model.

And in terms of, has the drilling commenced and what are the results have been so far? Any color on that?

We started drilling in April. We have 4 rigs turning. No results yet from the drilling this year, but we expect them to be pretty much in line with what we saw last year.

Okay. Thanks for that. And just on remaining at Goose, my last question would be regarding the CapEx update expected in June, Bill, what are you worried about that with the CapEx higher? Or any opportunities to maintain or even reduce the current CapEx estimate?

Well, I went through some of them already for sure. Like I said, it's tough to say some of the things because we're right now in the process of ordering for 2024, 2025. So those RFPs are out, we're in the process of shutting down the winter road, so we're in the process of evaluating that. But if you look at -- like I said, things like the reagents that we think that's going to be an under for sure. I think some of the critical spares so things that we can hold off of site. I think those are going to be unders. Remember, in theory, you would have one more shipping season. So anything you didn't -- wouldn't have to fly in that could be an under, but the counter also holds true that if there's something critical we need for the mill, you might fly initially that might be an over right? Or maybe on the mills or on the mining side, because we didn't commission the trucks as quickly as we thought, a lot of those operating costs for those trucks are going to be an under for this point -- up to this point, which is not to say it's not going to catch up. So that's why I can't really tell you exactly, but I feel -- I certainly feel very good that we are currently on budget or under budget at the stack.

Okay, thanks for that, Bill. And I'm glad that's it for me. Thanks for taking my questions.

Thanks, Ovais.

The next question comes from Ralph Profiti with Eight Capital. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator. Good morning, Clive. And maybe a question for Mike. And I just want to ask sort of a follow-up or in a different way, the Goose CapEx question because at the time we get the update in June, we're still sort of six, nine months ahead of first gold production. Will all of the outstanding spending be committed or locked in at that time? Or -- I'm just kind of trying to get a sense of what state of finalization will be in when we get the June update? A –Mike Cinnamond : Sorry, can you clarify what you mean by locked in or committed with more?

Yes, basically Yes. Thanks for that. So yes, just the amount of committed CapEx, right, in the context of total by the time we get to June.

How much have we spent so far?

We've spent, like, so far cash terms for the -- we've spent $840 million. We haven't spent all that, but project today is 840. And there's probably another 60-plus payable, so total cost 900 in that whole part. And I'm going to compare that to the total that we were talking about for construction, $1.5 billion [ph]. Big development, $200 million, and working capital, another $205 million. So [indiscernible].

So it's simply de-risked. The amount that's been spent is a good question. The amount that's been spent so far, I think, has been ordered. We're suggesting de-risked if the amount we've spent is ordered.

Yes, I think a lot of the capital is being ordered certainly like Bill said, well, I can't give you the number right now. But if you're saying what, at the end of June, we're saying it's fully committed. But everything, all the key stuff that we thought we needed is not only being ordered, it was delivered to the MLA and it's now being driven up the road for construction purposes. So as you get into the latter part of this Bill, a lot of the costs are going to be building up the working capital, right? Then we need to labor, a lot of labor going in there, and fuel and all the consumables as you move forward. But a lot of those are ready to occur from orders that brought up the ice road. But we'll certainly focus on that. I guess, I'm trying to give you some guidance on that when we get a new cost estimate and how that will be raised at cost.

Yeah. Okay, got you. That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. Clive, Finland, can you talk a little bit about your role in the country, given some of the decisions out there that we're waiting for? Should we think about your approach as sort of more or less or different than what we're seeing now and just sort of how you're thinking about that country as a jurisdiction when you approach exploration and future potential?

Yeah, we've been at it for a while there. We had some exponential success for sure. We didn't get out of the park and find millions of ounces of gold. It doesn't mean there's still potential for that. Obviously, our ground is very important to Rupert in terms of the ultimate development of an open pit, and also because of the 6,000 ounces or more potential that we see there. But I think it's an elegant deal, and we are happy to be sure, as Rupert, that the soon-to-be closing of that deal allows us to recoup our expression expenditures today, potentially by owning better shares, but also be part of the future. That's a very good deposit. Someone's going to build it at the end of the day. So we thought it was a really good way to stay involved in the sense of through share ownership and on the upside potential, but also focus our exploration on some of the things we consider to be higher priorities, such as Goose. And as we get back into trucking ore Fekola, as we start that, we will be looking at more exploration there as well. Great potential that they're regional, not only for additional oxide, heavily weathered saprolite material, but also the sulfides as well. So that's the rationale. I think it was a very good deal, good for Rupert, good for ourselves, and hopefully good for our joint venture partner as well.

Thanks for your thoughts. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Ralph.

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

Good morning, Clive, Mike, and Bill. So I just wanted to understand the delay, and specifically what's the pinch point? I'm assuming it's a tailings dam. And I just want to sort of understand what the mechanics are there in terms of why the three months was added.

Yeah, well, kind of, but not 100%. It's the combination of putting ore on the pad and completing the echo pit, right? So basically, we've got 10 trucks on site. When we took over and were commissioning the trucks, we identified that we didn't have some of the personnel resources that were appropriate for the Scope, and they didn't get the trucks commissioned on time, and there were some issues there. So basically, we fell behind mining in both Echo and Umwelt Pit. So I could say a combination of the two. I can do one or the other and still make the schedule. I can put over on the pad, have no tailings, or I can do Echo pit and have no ore, but I couldn't do both given the schedule I've got now, so that's the delay.

Okay, sorry. And is the Echo pit the one that's where the tailings going to be deposited? Is that what's happening?

That's correct.

Okay. And then long-term, like when does the Echo pit tap out on capacity? Do you build another tailing stand after that?

Absolutely, we do we start, it's going to go from Umwelt, and then I think it goes into Lama eventually.

Okay. And so just in terms of the trucks on site, you said you had 10 originally or how many do you need to get to get to the full production rate?

I think it's -- I'm not -- I might have to get back to you on. I think it's 15 is where we ultimately get, but I can't remember exactly. If I'm wrong, I'll come back to you.

Sure. And the other question that I would have is the ultimate mining capacity of the entire fleet at 15?

Yes, I don't have that number right in front of me.

Sorry. Okay. The other question that I had in terms of next year, and I know that Ralph has sort of asked a little bit about this, but I'm just curious about if you've got three months that you didn't anticipate, would there not be standby costs in terms of like G&A and people running the site that would be additional? And what would be the sort of run rate on that? I would assume somewhere in the range of about $5 million to $10 million a month, I guess, just -- but that would be what I know from comps in Northern Ontario might be a little bit more cost there?

Yes. And the answer is if we didn't manage it, if we just let everything run wild, then you could see those kind of numbers. That's what we said. We're actually trying to manage that down by making sure that the appropriate staffing is on site and making sure that the appropriate fuel consumption, all this stuff basically, we're just trying to take the construction curve and flatten out by three months.

Okay. And then just another thing that I would ask is that as you get closer to construction, what would you think outside, obviously, of the critical path items that you've addressed at this point? Is there anything else that we should be thinking about, like in closing truck shops and things like that? Is that something that you're also watching? Like what else keeps you up at night?

A lot of stuff keeps me up at night, but let's start with -- let's start with fuel tank construction, right? We've got -- as you know, we've got to bring in almost a little bit more than 80 million liters of fuel at both the MLA and at site, those tanks have to be built. In particular, one of the MLA because in September, that boat is going to arrive, we've already paid for it. And so if there's no tankage there, we got a problem, right? So, that's probably the next thing on a critical path. Giving us additional kind of three-month buffer and I don't ever tell the construction guys I said there was a three-month buffer now because they're still heading towards the original schedule. But if you look at like the underground stuff, that really gives us some opportunities to look at various options. And that's what we're going through right now is how do we really optimize it given this kind of bit of reprieve from an operational perspective. But everything else is going quite well.

Okay. And final question. Are you guys going to do the site tour again in September, so we can recalibrate ourselves?

Yes.

Okay, good. Thank you very much for taking my question.

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

Thank you, operator. And good morning, Clive and team. Congrats on a strong start to the year. So start off with Goose, so we've seen updates on budget and schedule. Do you plan to release any updates on, say, OpEx after the mines in production? I think the view is that ASIC will increases the -- but do you have any -- maybe the magnitude of the increase or a more precise estimate at this point?

So the answer is, yes, as one of the things that we've been waiting on is to update the resource model. And so when that comes up, we certainly want to put together a whole package, I think, and update it.

Okay. And then when do you think that would be?

Yes. I mean, we expect to update the resource for valid [ph] AIF. So the updated resource will come on the AIF next year, so still talking about the quick follow-on that update.

Okay, great. Maybe shifting over to Fekola, we saw that there was a tech report filed in March and 2026 is highlighted as an opportunity for the underground, when do you expect to have to realize some of the potential underground or do the necessary conversion of reserves that might be needed?

Yes. So we're going to reach the phase at the end of this year, and we fully plan to be in mining operationally in late Q1, Q2 next year.

Okay.

The region drilling continues, and one, as we said, when we get -- when we succeed on getting the expectation permit then we will accelerate some more drilling up the regional area -- remember the technical report is a regulatory requirement that did not include any inferred. And as you guys know, not all is treated equally, we have a great track record there and elsewhere, and turning inferred into indicated, so they'll be on the work there plus additional step out drilling, numerous ones up and down the barrels to test the ultimate potential mine life of the trucking board.

Got it. Okay. Thanks. I think my other question has been answered. That's all for me. Good luck on Q2 and the rest of the build.

This concludes the question-and-answer.

Thank you all for your time, and we look forward to continuing to update you on our progress. Thanks for your time.

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