B2Gold announces the successful commissioning of the mill expansion at the Fekola Mine in Mali to 7.5 million tonnes per annum, approximately one month ahead of the scheduled completion date of September 30, 2020.
This includes completion of all major construction activities associated with the Fekola mill expansion, as well as successful execution of a process performance test to compare with design expectations. Four days after start-up, a 5-day mill performance test was conducted from August 26 to August 30, 2020.
The results of the performance test exceeded design in throughput, gold recovery, grind and availability over the 5-day day period. The minor, outstanding construction work is expected to be completed by mid-September 2020.
The recent political unrest in Mali has not had a material impact on B2Gold’s operations, according to the company.