B2Gold achieves commercial production at Goose mine

B2Gold’s (TSX: BTO, NYSE-A: BTG) Goose mine, part of the Back River Gold District in Nunavut, has officially reached commercial production three months after making its first pour. Shares surged as the gold price hit yet another record high.

According to the Vancouver-based gold miner, it declared commercial production at Goose following 30 consecutive days of mill throughput averaging 65% or higher, based on a design capacity of 4,000 tonnes per day (tpd). Goose is located in southwestern Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region, about 400 km southwest of Cambridge Bay. 

“The Goose mine will be a cornerstone of B2Gold’s production base and demonstrates the strength of our construction and operating teams worldwide,” CEO Clive Johnson said in a release. 

From Sept. 3 through Oct. 2, the mill achieved an average throughput of 2,652 tpd, which represents 66% of design capacity, with most of the feed coming from the Echo open pit, B2Gold said.

Near capacity

However, it also noted that the mill achieved an average throughput of 3,249 tpd or 81.2% of design capacity from Sept. 19 onwards. At this rate, the company said it believes the Goose mill can operate near its design capacity of 4,000 tpd through the fourth quarter of 2025, during which the mill feed will predominantly come from the Umwelt deposit. Additionally, gold recoveries have been in line with expectations through the 30-day commercial production period, and are expected to average higher than 90% through Q4 and beyond, B2Gold added.

The milestone marks Goose as Canada’s most recent commercially producing gold mine and the second producing gold mine in Nunavut after Agnico Eagle’s (TSX, NYSE: AEM) Meliadine site. 

The announcement, saw B2Gold shares gain 0.1% to $7.42 apiece on Tuesday morning in Toronto, following a 5.7% rise on Monday, the highest in five years. 

The gold price on Tuesday also reached $3,978 (C$5,549) per oz., representing a 3.3% rise over last week’s peak and about a 51% gain this year to date. 

Production forecasts

With commercial production at Goose achieved, B2Gold is forecasting 80,000 to 110,000 oz. of gold production from its newest mine this year, representing about 8-10% of the company’s 2025 production guidance (970,000 to 1,075,000 oz.) across all operations.

In the following two years, B2Gold forecasts gold production at Goose to reach 250,000 oz. and 330,000 oz. respectively. During the first six full years of operations (2026 to 2031 inclusive), average annual gold production is expected to reach 300,000 oz. based on existing reserves.

“With the ramp up of Goose, we expect to see a material step-up in free cash flow,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Carey MacRury said in a note on Monday. “We forecast cash flow increasing to $233 million in 2025 (before gold prepay settlements) from negative $397 million in 2024 and further increasing to $886 million in 2026.”

As B2Gold as started settling its prepay ounces at a rate of 22,064 oz. per month starting in July 2025 through to June 2026, MacRury added that he sees the miner transitioning from net debt (including the prepay liability) of $639 million at YE24 to a net cash position of $317 million by YE26. 

While the current mine plan targets total production of 2.3 million oz. over nine years, it is based on just a fraction of the Back River district’s 6-million-oz. resource base, leaving room for further expansion. The company is also investigating expanding the mill capacity to 6,000 tpd to increase its production.

Secure your wealth today — buy gold bullion directly through our trusted partner, Sprott Money.