La Libertad Mine
(100% B2Gold)

La Libertad Mine is located 178 kilometres east of the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. B2Gold acquired 100% interest in the open pit gold mine in March 2009.

La Libertad Mine began operating as a heap leach mine in 1996. Operations were suspended in 2007 after studies showed that gold recovery could be improved from approximately 40% through heap leaching to over 90% using a conventional milling operation.

After investing over US$70 million in a new SAG and ball mill grinding circuit, carbon-in-pulp recovery tanks, and a tailings storage facility, La Libertad Mine is currently ramping up to its full processing capacity of 5,500 tonnes of ore per day.

Gold and silver production began in January 2010. With an initial seven-year mine life, La Libertad Mine is scheduled to produce approximately 80,000 to 90,000 ounces of gold annually at an estimated cash cost of approximately $500 per ounce.

La Libertad Mine is an important contributor to the Nicaraguan economy, providing approximately US$32 million in 2010 through local employment, supplies and services.

B2Gold enjoys a longstanding positive relationship with its employees and the Mine Workers Union. A detailed collective agreement was recently signed, providing both the company and workers with confidence in La Libertad Mine’s stable and lasting operations.

The large La Libertad property has excellent exploration targets both adjacent to and below currently planned open pits and along the 20 kilometre belt of mineralization contained on the property. Excellent potential exists to increase the reserves, resources and the mine life.

La Libertad Mine is 100% un-hedged.

The Milling Process

La Libertad Mine process facility processes ore both from the operating open pit and from a stockpile of spent-ore from the previous heap leach facility (approximately 30% spent-ore over the mine life). Ore from the mine is fed to the pre-existing primary crusher conveyed to a stockpile. Ore from the stockpile is blended with spent ore and fed to the grinding circuit consisting of a SAG mill and two ball mills.

Slurry from the mills is pumped from the cyclone feed pump box to the cyclone bank. Cyclone overflow reports to the pre-leach thickener. The thickener underflow is pumped to and flows by gravity through eleven leach tanks and five Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) tanks.

Activated carbon is present in the five CIP tanks to adsorb the leached gold from solution. The carbon is periodically pumped counter-current to the slurry flow. Periodically, loaded carbon is taken from the first CIP tank to the Adsorption Desorption-Recovery (ADR) plant where precious metals are removed. The slurry is then pumped from the final CIP tank to the tailings impoundment.

At the ADR plant, loaded carbon from the CIP tanks is acid washed and transferred to a strip vessel, where gold is removed in solution. The strip solution is pumped through electrowinning cells to precipitate the precious metal. This precious metal precipitate is collected then smelted to produce a doré bars.

Exploration

The 2010 diamond drilling program totaling 12,000 metres is underway at La Libertad Property. This program is focused on evaluating the possibility of expanding the open pits below the current reserves at the Crimea, Mojon and Santa Maria deposits as well as the exploration drilling at Jabali and other epithermal vein targets such as San Juan, El Carmen, Escandalo and Los Angeles.  Two rigs are active on this program during the year. Positive drill resutls have been received from the initial diamond drilling in and adjacent to the Mojon and Crimea deposits.

The Jabali Vein system, located nine kilometres east of the La Libertad Mine has been trenched along three kilometres of the vein’s strike length. Jabali is an east-west trending, low sulphidation, epithermal quartz vein system which was mined for its high grade ore from 1862 to 1956 and has been traced over a distance of 6.2 kilometres.

18 trenches testing the Jabali quartz vein stockwork system at surface have been completed. Recent results from the trenching and drilling on the Jabali zone have returned good gold grades over significant widths. Additional trenching to test the remainder of the strike length is ongoing.

There are two programs currently underway at Jabali; trenching and drilling for new open pit and/or underground resources at the Antenna and Central zones, as well as trench evaluation of the colluvium, generated from previous open pit and underground exploitation.

B2Gold expects to continue exploration on La Libertad Property with the intention of increasing the reserves, resources and mine life of the project.

Together with Local Communities

B2Gold is proud to be a good neighbor. Above and beyond the creation of hundreds of jobs for the local economy, the Company promotes, contributes to and executes many social projects that seek to ensure sustainable development in the communities around La Libertad Mine.

Phase one of B2Gold’s Agua por Vida (Water for Life) Project was completed in La Libertad in 2009, involving the construction of a new 112,000-gallon municipal water storage tank, replacement of old asbestos/cement piping with a modern PVC distribution network, and installation of 456 domestic water metres and taps. In this way, B2Gold helped to double La Libertad’s water treatment capacity, greatly reduce water outages and rationing, and bring safe drinking water to hundreds of households in the municipality.

A significant amount of B2Gold’s budget for local development targets independent small miners. Every year, the company commits to processing 5,500 tonnes of non-industrial miners’ ore as part of its social agreement with the Small Miners Cooperative of La Libertad. This enables the small miners to increase their incomes and reduces the environmental impact of small miners processing ore.

This year, B2Gold is initiating a small business development project that will benefit sixty youth from rural areas around La Libertad Mine. Focusing on activities appropriate to the local economy, participants in this project will receive training as dress-makers/tailors, dairy producers, environmental inspectors, etc. Other new projects will involve the installation of public lighting in town, the equipping of a municipal computer school, and capacity building for local government institutions.

B2Gold will continue to work hand-in-hand with the local governments and populations of La Libertad and Santo Domingo, supporting efforts in health and education, promoting environmental campaigns, sponsoring sports and recreational activities, and funding local child nutrition centers and homes for the elderly.

Please click here for the La Libertad Technical Report and here for the Jabali Zone Technical Report.