B2Gold Corp. is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Oklo Resources Limited (ASX: OKU) (“Oklo“). B2Gold has acquired 100% of the fully paid ordinary shares of Oklo (the “Oklo Shares“) in consideration for 0.0206 of a common share of B2Gold (each whole share, a “B2Gold Share“) and A$0.0525 in cash for each Oklo Share held. On closing, B2Gold issued 10,742,814 B2Gold Shares to Oklo shareholders, representing approximately 1% of the B2Gold Shares on an undiluted basis, and paid aggregate cash consideration of approximately A$27.4 million to Oklo shareholders.
The acquisition of Oklo provides B2Gold with an additional landholding of 1,405 km2 covering highly prospective greenstone belts in Mali, West Africa, including the Dandoko Project (550 km2), which now forms part of the Fekola Complex. The Dandoko Project is located on a subparallel, north-trending structure east of the prolific Senegal-Mali Shear Zone, approximately 25 kilometers from the Fekola Mine and approximately 25 kilometers from the Anaconda area. B2Gold is currently conducting a 2022 Mali drill program of approximately 161,000 meters with a budget of approximately US$35 million.
In March 2021, Oklo delivered an initial JORC 2012 compliant Measured and Indicated mineral resource estimate for the Dandoko Project of 8.70 million tonnes at 1.88 grams per tonne (“g/t“) for 528,000 ounces of gold and an Inferred mineral resource estimate of 2.63 million tonnes at 1.67 g/t for 141,000 ounces of gold. The mineral resources are distributed across the Seko, Koko, Disse and Diabarou deposits, all of which remain open and are expected to grow with ongoing exploration drilling both along strike and at depth. Significantly, B2Gold believes that the Oklo resource has similar metallurgical characteristics to the Fekola resources and would be amenable to processing at B2Gold’s Fekola mill.
The Company expects that a diamond drill rig dedicated to the Dandoko project will be on site by October 2022, with the objective of completing up to 4,000 meters of combined metallurgical and geotechnical drilling and the initial phase of strategic exploration drilling. Additional early-stage targets within the newly acquired landholding will also be assessed at this time.
With the acquisition of Oklo and its flagship Dandoko project, the Company is continuing to evaluate its options for the timing and sourcing of material on a regional basis from all deposits within the Fekola Complex area (including Fekola, Cardinal, the Anaconda Area, Bakolobi and Dandoko). This updated evaluation is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, with first saprolite production now anticipated in the second quarter of 2023. Subject to obtaining all necessary permits and completion of a final development plan, the Company intends to commence its planned Phase I infrastructure development in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Qualified Person
Tom Garagan, Senior Vice President of Exploration at B2Gold, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the information contained in this news release.
