B2Gold Corp.

My name is Cherie, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the B2 Gold fourth quarter and full year conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Clive Johnson, president, CEO, and director. You may begin your conference, sir.

Thanks, Sherry. Well, welcome, everyone. As the operator said, we're here to discuss the year-end financial results for 2022. We had a very good year again and achieved our production and consolidated cost guidance, ended in a very strong financial position for the year, and also did a We also declared another dividend of $0.04 a share for the quarter. I'm going to pass it over to Mike Sinema now, the CFO, who's going to walk you through the highlights of the financial results. I think our news release is quite extensive and other disclosure material. Mike, we'll get the highlights, and then we can answer your questions. You know, we've done a lot of marketing in the last couple of weeks since the announcement of the Sabina deal, and we can answer your expectations a little bit on that, and that's So with that, over to you, Mike.

Thanks, Claude. So I'll start with the quarter and then comment a little bit on the full year results. So for the quarter, I think the story for Q4 is that our operations came through and delivered on the sort of forecast that we were going to have a big Q4. I think if you may recall, by the end of Q3, we were close to budget, but there were some delays in production at both Focola because of water in the pit that was dewatered and then resolved at the start of the fourth quarter, and then some delays in Ochicoto just with accessing the Wolfshake Underground. So that led to a big forecast Q4 to catch up on some of the high grade that we weren't able to mine, and Q3 is originally scheduled. So good news is we delivered on it. In terms of results, that delivered gold revenues for $592 million, so that was based on the sale of 339,000 ounces, which is a bit higher than we budgeted to sell, and that's really a function of how high the production was. So if you look at production for the queue, from our three operating mines, 353,000 ounces. 35,000 ounces higher than budget, and it's a quarterly record for our operations. And if you include our share of caliber results, we had 368,000 ounces, which is almost 40,000 ounces higher than budget. The leader in that outperformance was Focola, 244,000 ounces in the quarter. 37,000 ounces higher than budget quarterly record. And like I said, it came mainly from processing that higher grade material out of Phase 6 of the Focola pit, some of which we can't process in Q3. But Focola basically continued to outperform all around. The processing facilities are still putting more material through them than, I guess, the nameplate. And the mill feet grade was higher. So positive on all aspects of Focola production. Ms. Batty was 49,000 ounces. It's pretty much right on budget. There were slightly lower gold recoveries during the quarter due to the nature of the higher ratio of sulfide and transitional ore versus budget, but that was offset by higher than expected feed grade, so it came in right on budget. Orge Dakota was 60,000 ounces, a little below budget, and that's really just a function of the timing to get into the Woolshag Underground. We got into the Woolshag Underground, started producing ore there and gold there. little later in Q4, so that's running well now, but we're slightly under budget in the Q. How does that factor into the operating results? Well, for the consolidated cash costs from all operations, including our share of Caliber, $468 per ounce, very close to budget overall. The COLA was pretty much in line with budget. It had slightly higher costs, but also record production, so it came in on budget. Ms. Batty was a bit higher. Ms. Batty, cash costs for the Q were $872 versus a budget of $752. And production was online, so it's really just a factor of inflation-driven higher costs, not almost exclusively, but mainly driven by fuel costs, which were higher for Ms. Batty in the period. And Ojikota was $465, and that's just $46 below budget. And that's really just a function of the timing of getting into the underground. There were lower underground mining costs because we were a little later getting into that than originally forecast. Put that all together, we pretty much came in in line with budget for the Q on the cash cost side. On the oil and sustaining cost side, the total oil and sustained cost per ounce, including our share of caliber, is $892 an ounce. That's about $130 an ounce higher than budget. And that's a function of broadly in line cash costs, as I described, but impacted by higher royalties due to higher gold price and also the main factor influencing it was the catch-up of budgeted sustaining capex so as we reported to the end of q3 uh some of the capex since it was originally scheduled for earlier in the year was was forecast to be caught up in q4 and overall we did catch up in the queue so that's why uh for the quarter we get higher than than uh budgeted all on sustaining costs when you put everything together on the cost side well firstly on the production side to comment, including our share of Caliber, we came in at 1,028,000 ounces, slightly above the upper half, or slightly above the midpoint of our guidance range, consolidated of 990 to 1050,000 ounces. So, good news, right in the range or in the upper half of it. Individually, FACOLA came in 599,000 ounces. Couldn't quite get it to that 600,000. We'll have to talk to Bill about that later. That was right at the top end of 70 to 600,000 ounces. Ms. Batty came in 213,000 ounces, slightly below the revised guidance range we had of 215 to 225. But remember, it was at the upper end of our original guidance range of 205 to 215,000 ounces. And note your code, 162,000 ounces, slightly below our revised guidance range of 165 to 175. And that, again, was just a function of the timing of getting into the wool shape, underground material, and the wrap-up of operations there. But overall, very pleased that we came in above the midpoint of our guidance range for the year. On the cash cost and sustaining cost side, as guided, I think we came in for the cash costs consolidated from all ops, including Caliber, $660 per ounce. So right at the top end of our original guidance range of $620 to $660. So I'd stress that that was the original guidance range. We didn't re-guide on the cash costs overall consolidated basis. So we're pleased. that even in a period of higher inflation, higher costs, definitely higher fuel costs, as all mining companies have seen, we still managed to come in at the upper end of our original range. And similar story for the oil and sustaining cost side. There we came in, consolidated all operations, including Caliber, $1,033 an ounce, so pretty much within a range of $1,010 to $1,050 per ounce. And what we saw there was cash costs at the higher end of the range. good solid production, and then the benefit of some offsets and fuel derivatives that let us come in overall within the all unsustaining cost range. So the operating results, we're pleased to be able to report that we had our guidance basically on all measures, so that was good. A few comments on the operations overall. First of all, I'd like to just throw out there how we're going to be describing and reporting the results from our Malian operations. Uh, so there'll be the focola mine, so we'll report that separately. That'll be focola mine, which is everything from the mid and anti permit, which includes focola pit right now in Cardinal. And then we're going to separately focola regional and that focola regional will be the production from all other licenses. So Bantaco, Mancoto, Bacalobi and Dendoco. And collectively we're calling the focola line and focola regional the focola complex. If you get confused about the different pieces, that's the way it's going to go. So I just wanted to throw that out there for you. At FACOLA, you've seen our budget. We put our budget out earlier in January, and you can see that we're already in phase one of FACOLA regional development, which is developing the infrastructure and the roads and some of the facilities so that we can start trucking material from the first of those FACOLA regional licenses, in this case, Montaco, later in 2023. So that's ongoing. Then you'll see in our recently announced Sabina acquisition. So what we're going to do is, in addition to Focola Regional Phase 1, there will be Focola Regional Phase 2. Focola Regional Phase 2 will be a report that we think will be out by mid-year where we're doing a study to see if it makes sense, which we think it does, to build a second mill somewhere in those other licenses, probably in the Manicota license. And that mill would process saprolyte oxide material, of which we have an abundance in those other licenses. So our goal with FACOLA Phase 1 to continue as we have now in the budget, then to be able to absorb the continued construction of the Goose project with the Sabina acquisition, with a goal of bringing that online by the first quarter of 2025. And then once we have this FACOLA Phase 2 study, the regional study for that second mill, and if we decide it's a go decision, then to schedule that around, making sure that we get the GUS project completed and up and running by the first quarter of 25. So you'll see us move into that second phase two FACOLA construction a bit later in the process. And Bill, I think, can talk a bit more about the overall scheduling and timing. A couple other comments. Gramalati project, as we announced before, we decided jointly with our partners, AG8, to begin a sales process on Gramalati. And so that's provide updates on that in due course. Then really just comment on a couple other things in the results. So net income for the period, attributable to shareholders of the company, $157 million, or 15 cents per share, EPS. Adjusted EPS was 11 cents a share based on adjusted net income of $121 million. And for the full year, Earnings for charitable shareholders of the company, $253 million, or $0.24 per share. EPS and adjusted EPS, $0.25 per share, based on adjusted net income of $264 million. Let me just comment on the cash flows. For the three months, you can see it was a big cash flow generator for us because of the weighting of that higher grade and the production that we had. So cash flow from operations, $270 million for the Q, was $0.25 per share. And then for the year, cash flow from operations, just under $600 million, $596 million, or $0.56 per share. So we're pleased with that result. On the financing side, if you look for the year, $170 million outflow for dividends. So we're maintaining that dividend of $0.04 per share U.S. per quarter or $0.16 per share annualized. And what I would comment on at this point on the dividend, it's our intention – Even as we absorb the CAPEX requirements for FACOLA Regional Phase 1, completing GUS with the Sabine acquisition, the construction there, and then FACOLA Phase 2, it's our intent to keep paying dividend at the current rate if gold prices stay where we are, to maintain our current dividend rate and work our way around those CAPEX needs. Looking at investing activities for the year, $389 million, pretty close to budget overall. On the operating and sustaining side, we found that although there was a big catch-up of sustaining capex in Q4, overall for the year, we came pretty close to budget. We finished the year $651 million in the bank. We're pretty much debt-free. We have some outstanding project equipment loans and leases and some office leases, but we're pretty much debt-free overall. So we've got $600 million undrawn on our line of credit. We've got another $200 million available in the recording feature. That's $800 million available in that line. And so if you combine that with the $651 million cash we finished the year with, we've got total liquidity at the balance sheet date of somewhere between $1.4 and $1.5 billion. So it's that kind of liquidity. We've got great syndicated banks that we deal with. We've got a great partner with Caterpillar, who's been involved in all of our projects in the last few years. and lots of tools in our toolbox to be able to see our way through funding those major CapEx items that I mentioned. FACOLA regional phase one, Sabina acquisition, getting that completed and getting the Goose project built on time as scheduled by the first quarter of 25 and then moving. Also funding FACOLA regional phase two. So I think we're in great shape overall, cash flow wise, and like I said, to also maintain that dividend at the current rates.