B2Gold Announces Positive Year-End Exploration Drill Results for the Fekola Property and Anaconda Area in Mali

VANCOUVER, Dec. 9, 2019 /CNW/ - B2Gold Corp. (TSX: BTO, NYSE AMERICAN: BTG, NSX: B2G) ("B2Gold" or the "Company") announces positive year-end exploration drill results for the Fekola property and Anaconda area. 

Highlights

• Positive infill drilling of the Fekola Inferred Mineral Resource 
• Fekola remains open to the north with new good-grade drill results 
• Anaconda area exploration results: 
• New drill results extend the Mamba and Adder saprolite zones (located 20 kilometres 
  north of Fekola) 
• Additional high-grade drill intercepts expand the Mamba sulphide (bedrock) discovery below the saprolite
• Initial positive drilling results from the Cardinal and FMZ zones indicate potential for additional gold deposits near the Fekola open-pit mine

Recent Exploration

As part of B2Gold's continuing exploration of the Fekola and Anaconda regional projects in 2019, the Company completed approximately 114,000 metres of combined reverse circulation, diamond, aircore and auger drilling. Drilling has resulted in the discovery of significant new bedrock-hosted mineralization in the Mamba structure at Anaconda. At Fekola, the infill drilling results have continued to support the conversion of Inferred Mineral Resources to Indicated Mineral Resources within the resource pit boundary and drilling north of the resource pit continues to extend good-grade mineralization, remaining open to the north.

Fekola Resource Infill Drill Program and North Extension Drilling

By November 2019, B2Gold completed more than 25,000 metres of drilling in the area, with the majority of the area having been sufficiently drilled to upgrade the 1.37 million ounces of Inferred Mineral Resource to Indicated Mineral Resource status (see news release dated October 25, 2018). An updated resource model is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. 

As reported in September 2019, excellent infill drill results were obtained from the deepest portions of the 2018 $1,400/ounce resource pit shell. Drill holes FKD_409 (4.03 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold over 30.50 metres from 437.5 metres), FKD_413 (10.44 g/t gold over 19.8 metres from 495.2 metres) and FKD_415 (3.3 g/t gold over 38.2 metres from 467.5 metres) provide added confirmation that significant intervals of high-grade gold mineralization occur beyond the limits of the 2019 preliminary economic assessment pit shell (see news release dated May 13, 2019). More recently, FKD_432 (1.50 g/t gold over 23.20 metres from 525.80 metres, including 2.44 g/t gold over 11.50 metres from 525.80 metres) shows that mineralization related to the Fekola shear zone extends beyond the limits of the current pit shells to the north. The Company plans on extensively testing the potential for additional mineral resources at Fekola as part of the proposed 2020 drill program.

Recent highlights from the Fekola North Extension drilling include:

Fig. 1 – Fekola schematic long section: 

To view an enhanced version of Fig. 1 – Fekola schematic long section, please visit: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1041905/B2Gold_Corp__B2Gold_Announces_Positive_Year_End_Exploration_Dril.jpg?p=original

Anaconda Area Exploration

In addition to the Fekola drill program, in 2019, B2Gold completed over 45,000 metres of combined aircore, diamond and reverse circulation drilling in the Anaconda region where the Company previously announced an initial Inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 767,000 ounces of gold at 1.1 g/t in near-surface mineralization over 4.5 kilometres and up to 500 metres wide.  

In 2019, drilling focused on increasing the known saprolite resources at the Adder and Mamba zones and further testing the underlying sulphide mineralization in the Mamba zone. At Adder, drilling has extended the strike extent of mineralization up to 1 kilometre north of the known resource area. At Mamba, recent drilling has extended the high-grade mineralized saprolite zone by approximately 600 metres, resulting in more than 1 kilometre of known strike length, and has led to the discovery of a continuous bedrock sulphide zone down plunge of the Mamba zone's saprolite mineralization. Good grade and width combinations, including intersections in MSD_177 (2.64 g/t gold over 35.60 metres, including 4.71 g/t gold over 11.00 metres from 267.00 metres) and MSD_179 (4.94 g/t gold over 31.20 metres, including 10.02 g/t gold over 13.80 metres from 133.80 metres), provide early indications that the Mamba zone discovery has the potential to become a significant new gold deposit for B2Gold near the Fekola Mine. This Fekola-style, south-plunging body of sulphide mineralization remains open down plunge and will be the subject of extensive drilling in 2020.

Recent highlights from the Anaconda area exploration include:

Fig. 2 – Anaconda regional plan map: 

To view an enhanced version of Fig. 2 – Anaconda regional plan map, please visit: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1041906/B2Gold_Corp__B2Gold_Announces_Positive_Year_End_Exploration_Dril.jpg?p=original  

Fig. 3 – Mamba schematic long section: 

To view an enhanced version of Fig. 3 – Mamba schematic long section, please visit: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1041907/B2Gold_Corp__B2Gold_Announces_Positive_Year_End_Exploration_Dril.jpg?p=original

Fekola Regional Exploration

Near Fekola, over 7,500 metres of initial drilling was completed on the Cardinal and FMZ structures which have demonstrated the potential to host near-surface mineralization within 3 kilometres of the Fekola mill.  Additional drilling is required and is scheduled for completion in 2020.

Recent highlights from the Cardinal and FMZ exploration programs include:

Ongoing Exploration

Drilling on the Fekola and Anaconda regional projects will continue in 2020 with a proposed exploration budget in West Mali of approximately $18 million. 

About B2Gold Corp. 

Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, B2Gold is the world's new senior gold producer. Founded in 2007, today, B2Gold has three operating gold mines and numerous exploration and development projects in various countries including, Mali, the Philippines, Namibia and Colombia. In 2020, B2Gold forecasts consolidated gold production of between 1,005,000 and 1,050,000 ounces.

QA/QC on Sample Collection and Assaying 

The primary laboratories for Fekola are SGS Laboratories in Bamako, Mali and Bureau Veritas Laboratories in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Periodically, exploration samples will be analyzed at the Fekola mine lab. At each lab, samples are prepared and analyzed using 50 g fire assay with atomic absorption finish and/or gravimetric finish. Umpire assays are used to monitor lab performance monthly.

Quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") procedures include the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates into the core, reverse circulation and aircore drilling sample strings. The results of the control samples are evaluated on a regular basis with batches re-analyzed and/or resubmitted as needed. All results stated in this news release have passed B2Gold's QA/QC protocols.

Qualified Persons

Tom Garagan, Senior Vice President of Exploration at B2Gold, a qualified person under NI 43-101, has approved the exploration information contained in this news release.

B2Gold Investor Day 2019: Webcast Details

B2Gold will be hosting an Investor Day in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, onMonday, December 9, 2019, at 1:00 pm PST/4:00 pm EST. 

The event will feature presentations from B2Gold executives and senior managers from around the world and will be followed by Q&A sessions. 

The Investor Day will be available to view via live video webcast which you may access by clicking here: https://www.b2gold.com/investor-day-2019/. A playback version of the webcast will be available for one year after the event.

On Behalf of B2GOLD CORP.

"Clive T. Johnson"                                                     
President and Chief Executive Officer