B2Gold drills 9.5 m of 27.73 g/t Au at Masbate

2014-02-21 12:22 ET - News Release

Mr. Tom Garagan reports

B2GOLD CORP. ANNOUNCES 2013 MASBATE MINE EXPLORATION RESULTS

B2Gold Corp. has released 2013 exploration and resource drilling results from the Montana vein extension at the Masbate gold mine, located in the Philippines approximately 300 kilometres south of Manila. The Masbate open-pit mine is projected to produce between 190,000 and 200,000 ounces of gold in 2014.

Masbate mine, Philippines

The 2013 drill program comprising 26,902 metres has defined an extension to the previously mined Montana vein, extending more than 850 metres northwest from the Montana open pit, extending the strike length of the Montana vein to 1,300 metres. The extension is located 600 metres west of the Colorado pit along the main haulage road to the mill, and as a result will provide a closer, higher-grade source of ore for the Masbate mill. The Montana vein remains open at depth and additional drilling is planned for the second quarter of 2014.

A new mineral resource estimate for the Montana vein is currently under way and is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2014.

Significant drill intersections from the 2013 drill program on the new Montana vein extension include hole MONRC021, which intersected 9.5 metres true width (all drill intersections reported are true width) grading 27.73 grams per tonne gold, MONRC092 which intersected 23.4 metres grading 7.31 grams per tonne gold, MONRC070 which intersected 15.5 metres grading 7.41 grams per tonne gold, MONRC093 which intersected 16.7 metres grading 5.63 grams per tonne gold and MONRC053 which intersected 19.1 metres grading 4.65 grams per tonne gold. The current average grade of the Masbate mine reserves is 0.97 gram per tonne gold.

An aggressive 2014 exploration program totalling $6.2-million is under way with five diamond drill rigs currently working. The 2014 program will comprise metallurgical and reserve/resource drilling on numerous mine veins, including Montana, the main vein, Libra East, Grandview, Colorado and Panique. Exploration drilling designed to outline new resources will be carried out on near mine veins outside of the current reserve/resource, such as the Grandview East area which is open east of hole GVRC027, which intersected 75 metres grading 0.91 gram per tonne gold and the Pajo South extension where trenching has intersected up to 15 metres grading 1.04 grams per tonne gold.

In addition to drilling, geochemical sampling and follow-up trenching will be carried out on a number of priority target areas outside of the current resource. B2Gold's geologic team believes there is good potential to increase the Masbate reserves and resources with additional exploration drilling.

Recent significant drilling results from the Montana vein are provided in the table.

                            DRILL RESULTS

                                        Drill     True      Gold   Gold (g/t)
                       From       To    width    width      (g/t)  capped at
Hole ID      Zone   (metres) (metres) (metres) (metres) uncapped      15 g/t

MONRC003  Montana    178.00   203.00    25.00    17.60      1.37        1.37
MONRC009  Montana     76.00    90.00    14.00     9.10      1.95        1.95
MONRC010  Montana     44.00    73.00    29.00    19.70      1.65        1.65
MONRC014  Montana     66.00    88.00    22.00    18.20      1.35        1.35
MONRC015  Montana     51.00    77.00    26.00    19.50      1.58        1.58
MONRC016  Montana     87.00   104.00    17.00    10.40      5.49        4.69
MONRC018  Montana    115.00   128.00    13.00     5.90      4.85        3.21
MONRC021  Montana     86.00   100.00    14.00     9.50     27.73        6.68
MONRC023  Montana    116.00   134.00    18.00    13.00      2.20        2.20
MONRC030  Montana     38.00    52.00    14.00    11.00      1.42        1.42
MONRC030  Montana     57.00    72.00    15.00    10.00      1.57        1.57
MONRC031  Montana     83.00    96.00    13.00     6.00      2.46        2.46
MONRC035  Montana     72.50    91.10    18.60    12.40      1.85        1.85
MONRC036  Montana     65.55    83.50    17.95    12.00      2.05        2.05
MONRC036  Montana     42.80    53.05    10.25     7.90      4.97        4.00
MONRC038  Montana     47.30    61.30    14.00     9.00      3.67        3.23
MONRC039  Montana    116.10   124.60     8.50     6.90      8.17        3.35
MONRC043  Montana     72.55    88.70    16.15    11.30      3.35        2.08
MONRC046  Montana     79.85   100.70    20.85    15.70      2.47        2.29
MONRC047  Montana     42.40    53.30    10.90     7.40      2.94        2.94
MONRC048  Montana     28.50    61.20    32.70    18.40      1.88        1.43
MONRC049  Montana     82.60   108.13    25.53    13.30      3.27        3.04
MONRC052  Montana     14.40    31.90    17.50    10.50      1.83        1.83
MONRC053  Montana     18.40    52.70    34.30    19.10      4.65        1.87
MONRC054  Montana    145.50   160.95    15.45    11.11      4.58        3.09
MONRC061  Montana     84.60    91.08     6.48     2.75     23.76        3.67
MONRC070  Montana     73.50    91.50    18.00    15.50      7.41        4.24
MONRC075  Montana    106.60   116.20     9.60     8.00      6.17        4.32
MONRC076  Montana     92.90   101.80     8.90     5.80      3.53        3.53
MONRC077  Montana    120.10   124.55     4.45     3.50      4.93        3.66
MONRC081  Montana     99.40   107.70     8.30     7.10      3.79        3.12
MONRC082  Montana     33.60    40.70     7.10     5.40      8.98        7.06
MONRC083  Montana    111.00   120.90     9.90     9.30      4.15        1.44
MONRC088  Montana    125.00   136.55    11.55     9.60      2.41        1.72
MONRC092  Montana     74.60   102.40    27.80    23.40      7.31        2.26
MONRC093  Montana     69.50    92.45    22.95    16.70      5.63        4.60
MONRC096  Montana     14.90    29.00    14.10     8.50      3.99        3.18
MONRC097  Montana     70.50    96.20    25.70    21.50      2.94        2.42
MONRC099  Montana     81.70    95.70    14.00    13.60      2.58        2.15
MONRC100  Montana     47.20    79.50    32.30    19.50      4.40        2.79
MONRC102  Montana     85.40   100.10    14.70    11.00      4.82        4.82
MONRC104  Montana     41.50    65.90    24.40    14.20      3.60        3.05
MONRC106  Montana    103.00   125.10    22.10    17.30      2.15        1.47
MONRC109  Montana     61.20    84.15    22.95    16.60      1.01        1.01
MONRC111  Montana     30.30    50.40    20.10    19.10      4.34        3.79

B2Gold's quality assurance/quality control

Quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates into the core sample strings. The primary laboratories for the Masbate gold project are SGS in Tianjin, China, and its on-site laboratory at the Masbate gold project where samples are analyzed by fire assay with atomic absorption finish. All sample preparation is carried out at the SGS Exploration sample preparation facility on site at the Masbate gold project. ACME Labs, Vancouver, Canada, is the umpire laboratory. All results stated in this announcement have passed B2Gold's QA/QC protocols.

Tom Garagan is the qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101.