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• SOUTHERN AFRICA | NAMIBIA The Otjikoto plant has some of the highest overall metallurgical recoveries in the world B2GOLD’S OTJIKOTO Triple-listed international gold miner B2Gold Corp. (B2Gold) is celebrating record production volumes (and process plant recoveries) at its Namibia-based open cast Otjikoto operation – well above initial output expectations when the mine started producing in December 2014. While this in itself is a massive achievement for the company, B2Gold is already looking towards the future with aspirations to develop an underground mine at the nearby operating Wolfshag deposit, writes LAURA CORNISH. IN SHORT The Otjikoto operation is fulfilling its purpose as B2Gold’s African dream asset after delivering record production volumes in 2016 – with similar expectations on the cards for 2017. Otjikoto outperforms expansion While it took B2Gold only three years to deliver the gold-producing Otjikoto after acquiring the Greenfield project late in 2011, the mine’s journey since then has continued with equal if not greater momentum. It is located approximately 300 km north of Windhoek between Otjiwarongo and Otavi and is owned 90% by B2Gold and 10% by EVI Mining, a local empowerment group. When first built, Otjikoto was designed to comfortably deliver around 140 000 ozpa of open cast gold resources from a 2.8 Mtpa ROM rate for just over 12 years. A simple expansion to the process plant, completed around mid-2015, saw its production 20 MINING REVIEW AFRICA | MARCH 2017 capacity output increase well above this to its current 3.3 Mtpa ROM and 165 000 – 175 000 ozpa of gold (which is even higher than intended from the expansion and the forecast for 2017). The mine produced 166 285 oz of gold for the 2016 year. “This is a phenomenal achievement considering the expansion simply entailed incorporating additional leach tanks, pumps and large diameter pipes – successfully implemented to the point where it now outperforms the planned 365 tph and delivers around 420 tph,” says B2Gold Namibia MD Mark Dawe. “We have also increased our mining equipment fleet to accommodate these higher volumes and will add another five mining trucks and a 250 t excavator during the year to ensure we continue to operate comfortably.” The latter half of 2015 also saw B2Gold introduce its nearby B2Gold-discovered Wolfshag deposit into its production mix. Dawe describes this as a “very rich ore body” strategically ideal to blend with the Aerial view of Otjikoto open pit