All of the 2025 Academy Awards. Seriously, good afternoon. My name is Kelvin Dushnisky. I'm Chairman of the Board. I'd like to welcome you and call the 2025 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of B2Gold to order. We're also hosting the meeting through a virtual platform. Before we begin, we'd like to acknowledge that we are gathered today on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. I'll act as Chair of the meeting, and I appoint Randall Chatwin, Senior Vice President, Legal and Corporate Communications, to act as Recording Secretary of the meeting, and Deanna Hintersteininger of Computershare Investor Services Inc., to act as Scrutineer for the meeting. Also present at the meeting today are the following directors, and please stand as I call your names: Clive Johnson, President and CEO. That was Clive's stand.
Greg Barnes, Kevin Bullock, Liane Kelly, Jerry Korpan, Thabile Makgala, Lisa Pankratz, who isn't here in person, she had to attend to a family business, but she sends her regards, and Robin Weisman. Now I'll introduce the officers of the company with us today. Also, please stand as I call your names: Mike Cinnamond, Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Bill Lytle, Senior Vice President, Operations and Chief Operating Officer. Randall Chatwin, Senior Vice President, Legal and Corporate Communications. Victor King, Senior Vice President, Exploration. Dennis Stansbury, Senior Vice President, Engineering and Project Evaluations. Eduard Bartz, Vice President, Taxation and External Reporting. Andrew Brown, Vice President, Exploration. Ninette Krohnert , Vice President, Human Resources. Michael McDonald, Vice President, Investor Relations, Corporate Development and Treasury. Peter Montano, Vice President, Projects. Dan Moore, Vice President, Operations. John Rajala , Vice President, Metallurgy. And Neil Reeder, Vice President, Government Relations.
Now for the business of the meeting. The notice of this meeting and the accompanying information circular was filed, and the notice and access notification in proxy form or voting instruction form was mailed to the shareholders by May 14th, 2025. I have received a copy of the declaration attesting to the publication and mailing, and the Recording Secretary will arrange for the declaration to be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. These minutes will be available for inspection by any registered shareholder or proxy holder. I propose that we waive reading the notice of the meeting unless anyone specifically requests that it be read at this time. The Recording Secretary has notified me that a quorum is present.
Notice having been given, in accordance with the articles and a quorum being present, I declare the meeting properly constituted for the transaction of business, and I direct that the report of the scrutineer be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. I propose that we first deal with all of the routine business requirements and then terminate the formal meeting and carry on in a less formal manner by way of an opportunity for questions from registered shareholders and proxy holders, as well as a presentation relating to the company's activities and operations. As this meeting is being held in person and virtually, I'd like to set out a few rules for the orderly conduct of the meeting. For those attending online, questions in respect of motion can be submitted using the messaging icon at the top of the virtual interface.
When reading out a question, I will note the name of the registered shareholder or proxy holder submitting a question. In order to deal with all the questions in a timely fashion, questions of a similar nature will be answered at once. For those attending in person, only registered shareholders or proxy holders may ask questions or vote. Before addressing the Chair, identify yourself by name and show the card provided to you upon registration. Questions on the formal meeting items will be addressed as each item is tabled. Questions and comments of a general nature will be deferred until the question period. If we're unable to address your general question during that time, a representative of B2Gold will reach out to you following the meeting with a response. Voting on all matters at this meeting will be conducted by ballot.
For those attending online, to allow sufficient time for voting, the polls for all matters being voted on will be open following these introductory remarks and closed at the end of the meeting. Momentarily, you'll see the ballot open on the virtual interface requesting you to start registering your votes. I remind you that only registered shareholders and proxy holders who have properly logged in with their control numbers or username will be able to see on the screen all motions being brought forth at this meeting and will be asked to vote on each business item. To vote, simply click on your choice for or withhold or against as applicable. A confirmation message will appear to show your vote has been received. To change your vote, simply change your selection. When the poll closes, the votes submitted on each resolution item will be recorded through the virtual meeting platform.
For those attending in person, I understand that each registered shareholder and a proxy holder received a ballot at the time of registration. Registered shareholders or proxy holders completing a ballot should make an X or other mark in the square associated with the word for, withhold, or against as applicable and sign the ballot. Also, please print your name beside your signature where indicated and record the number of shares that you are entitled to vote. When you have completed your ballot, please hold it up for collection. I remind you that if you are a registered shareholder and you have already voted by proxy, you need not vote again. For any motions duly brought before the meeting not included in the circular, the polls for such matters will be opened and closed as I deem necessary or desirable for the orderly and expeditious conduct of the meeting.
If you plan to vote at the meeting, you may choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait to cast your vote until after an item is discussed. Once discussion on all items of business before the meeting has concluded, you will be given one final opportunity to enter your votes on the open polls, and I will then declare voting closed on all resolutions. Voting totals for each resolution item will be tallied once the polls have closed. I will then report on the outcome of the motions. The final results of the polls will be reported in the scrutineer's report and will be posted under B2Gold's SEDAR+ profile. I now declare the polls open for all resolutions included in the circular.
The first item of business is the presentation to shareholders of the annual consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2024, and the auditor's report on the financial statements. The financial statements were posted on SEDAR+ on February 19th, 2025, and mailed to the shareholders on April 9th, 2025. Copies of the statements are available to shareholders upon request. The auditor is PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, and representatives are attending the meeting today. If registered shareholders or proxy holders have any questions for PWC, they are available to respond. The next item of business is to set the number of directors. Could I please have a motion?
Mr. Chair, my name is Randall Chatwin. I am a registered shareholder, and I move that the number of directors be set at 10.
Thank you. Are there any questions or discussion on the motion? If there are no questions or discussion, I direct that a poll be conducted on that motion and the scrutineers report the results. If you haven't already cast your vote, please cast your vote now. Are there any more ballots to be collected? If none, we'll proceed to the next item of business. The next item of business is the election of directors. The director nominees proposed by management for election are listed in the circular. No other nominations have been received in accordance with the company's advance notice policy, and accordingly, management's nominees for election are the only persons permitted to be nominated for election. Could I please have nominations for management's proposed directors?
Mr. Chair, I nominate the following persons for election as directors: Kelvin Dushnisky, Clive Johnson, Greg Barnes, Kevin Bullock, Liane Kelly, Jerry Korpan, Thabile Makgala, Basie Maree, Lisa Pankratz, and Robin Weisman.
I would ask for a motion that the director nominees be elected as directors of the company to hold office until the termination of the next AGM or until their successors are elected or appointed.
I so move.
Thank you. I direct that a poll be conducted on the motion and that the scrutineer report the results. If you haven't already cast your vote, please do so now. Are there any more ballots to be collected? If none, we'll proceed to the next item of business. The auditor of the company is PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Management proposes that the auditor be reappointed until the next AGM. May I now have a motion that the auditor be reappointed and the directors are authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditor?
I so move.
Thank you. Are there any questions or discussion on the motion? If there are no questions or discussion, I direct that a poll be conducted on the motion and that the scrutineer report the results. If you haven't already cast your vote, please do so now. Are there any more ballots to be collected? If none, we'll proceed to the next item of business. The next item of business is to consider, and if deemed advisable, pass a resolution on a non-binding advisory basis accepting the company's approach to executive compensation as disclosed in the circular. As this is an advisory vote, the results will be non-binding. However, the board will take the results into account as appropriate when considering future executive compensation policies, procedures, and decisions. May I have a motion to approve the form of resolution set out on page 25 of the circular?
I so move.
Thank you. Are there any questions or discussion with respect to the resolution? If there are no questions or discussion, I direct that a poll be conducted on the motion and that the scrutineer report the results. If you haven't already cast your vote, please do so now. Are there any more ballots to be collected? If none, we'll proceed to the next item of business. That concludes the matters to be voted on. If you have not voted yet, please do so now as the polls will close shortly. Give a moment. Thank you. The polls are now closed. I direct the scrutineer to provide a report on the results of the polls. Thank you. I now have the preliminary results from the scrutineer's report for the matters set forth in the circular.
Based on the preliminary results from the scrutineer's report, I declare that as a majority of the proxies deposited for the meeting have been voted for the election of each of the director nominees, the director nominees have been elected as directors of the company. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has been reappointed as the auditor until the next AGM, and the directors are authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditor, and the resolution accepting the company's approach to executive compensation has been carried. After the meeting, upon receipt of the final scrutineer's report on the polls conducted during this meeting, I direct the Recording Secretary to attach the report of the scrutineer to the minutes of the meeting. All of the formal business for which the meeting has been called has now been completed.
Following termination of this formal part of the meeting, registered shareholders and proxy holders who wish to ask questions or make comments will be invited to do so. May I have a motion to terminate the meeting?
I so move.
Thank you. Based on the preliminary results, I declare the motion carried, and the formal part of this meeting is now terminated. If attending virtually, I now invite registered shareholders or proxy holders who wish to ask questions or make comments to do so via the virtual meeting platform. If attending in person, please first raise your hand, and upon being called on by me, identify yourself by name and show your card. Are there any questions? There being no questions and the formal part of the meeting having been concluded, I declare the meeting terminated. We'll now have members from our executive team provide an update regarding our operations, projects, sustainability, human resources, and exploration. But just before I invite our CEO to lead the presentation, I'd like to thank all of you for attending today.
I'd also like to comment that to all the B2Gold employees in the room, we'd like to thank you. 2024 was a challenging year on many fronts, and the board is very grateful for your perseverance and commitment. It was a busy year for your board too. There were significant accomplishments across all of the committees, and I'd like to thank my board colleagues for their vigilance and enthusiasm throughout the year. Importantly, we welcome two new members to the board this year, complementing the directors' skill sets in two very important areas: projects and operations and capital markets, and I'm referring to the addition of Basie Maree and Greg Barnes. I've known both of them for many years. I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Basie, in fact, when we were both at Barrick.
He rose to the level of Chief Technical Officer and also when he was a very effective Chief Operating Officer at Allied Gold. What I didn't know about Basie, and I just learned last night on a personal note, is he happened to be the judo champion for South Africa for his weight class when he lived there. So fortunately, I never had any dust-ups with Basie. I recommend the same for you. Many of you will know or know of Greg Barnes. Greg, who until recently, when he retired from TD Bank, was one of the mining industry's most recognized and accomplished analysts. He consistently ranked at the top of his peer group, and all of us for whom he covered had a high degree of respect for Greg. He was deep understanding and always very balanced in his analysis.
More recently, he's now focused his attention on improving his golf handicap, which we understand is happening, which I find a little annoying, to be honest with you, and I'm jealous. But we are fortunate to have attracted two individuals of their caliber to the board, and I think it reflects their sense of respect and appreciation for the company. Personally, I'd like to thank all of my board colleagues for their support and the executive team for helping us fulfill our obligations as a board. And finally, on behalf of the board, I'd like to acknowledge and extend our sincere appreciation to every member of the B2Gold family around the world for all their hard work and dedication and their commitment to the company. So thank you very much, and I'll now turn it over to our CEO, Clive.
I'm waiting for a countdown, apparently. Good to go. Good afternoon. Thank you very much, as Kelvin said, for coming out to join us and those on the meeting virtually. I'm going to walk you through a few introductory slides and then hand it over to a lot of our executive team, as Kelvin said, to give you some details of what we've done in 2024 and the very exciting future we see in 2025 and beyond. This is a cautionary statement, which means basically there are certain things we're going to say maybe or will be forward-looking and therefore may be subject to change. I call it the legal cover ass slides, and Randall, do I have to read this out?
No.
Oh, good. Well, that's encouraging, isn't it? So I think most of you will know where we are around the world, but we'll go through it quite quickly. Head office, of course, is here in Vancouver, and our producing mines are the Fekola Complex in Mali, the Masbate Gold Mine in the Philippines, and the Otjikoto Mine in Namibia. You're going to hear quite a bit about each of those mines today, and you're going to hear a story about the Back River Gold District and the Goose Project, which is becoming a mine in the next few weeks as we anticipate pouring the first gold. But I won't steal any of Bill's thunder. He's going to update you and talk to you about the remarkable job that everyone has done up there in bringing this project into production. We had some tremendous meetings this week.
It's something we do every year, and we bring all the management teams from around the world, from all the mines, with their management groups, their country managers, and the key people running the mines, etc. And they come and they present to the other executives of the various mines and management. It's a very interactive process. It really gets an exchange of views, and to me, it's just a great example of what we can do. But I think it's quite unusual having everyone share their experiences so we can have the metallurgist from the Philippines at Masbate talking to the Otjikoto management team and technical team. And that kind of exchange is tremendous to see.
So we had up to 40 people in the boardroom at certain times this last week, and I found that I'm sure I've heard from so many employees and management of how much they think that's an extraordinary experience, so our key principles of fairness, respect, and transparency were definitely in evidence this last week. This is a slide that talks about our production growth, which is very impressive. We started this company about 16 years ago at zero, and it has grown dramatically with various successful mines throughout the world, as we pointed out. It looks great for about 10 years here. In fact, for 2024, we didn't meet our guidance. We had to re-guide on production and our costs.
The good news about that, as you'll hear today, is that we've broken that one year and where we had to re-guide, and now we're back on track. This year, we're projecting to be back up in that million-ounce-a-year range. The success is back on track. We'll talk about some of the reasons why as the guys take you through the presentation. Total gold production for 2024 was just over 800,000 ounces. Originally, we projected about 850,000 ounces. Cash operating costs were $189 an ounce, and all-in sustaining costs were $1,465 an ounce. Obviously, with today's gold prices, that's a pretty attractive cost point to be at. In production, we continued our industry-leading safety and sustainability performance. The Otjikoto Mine and Masbate Mine continued their very strong performance in beating guidance.
It was the Fekola Mine that had challenges both in equipment failures and also in the delays from the Malian government in getting the necessary permits we needed to start trucking ore from the north, what we call the regional areas. That permit is forthcoming. You'll hear more about that as we go through the presentation. One very important thing that happened last year is we did sign a memorandum of understanding with the government of Mali. That was after over a year of negotiations. The government of Mali brought in the 2023 Mining Code. The reason for our permits were delayed was partly because that Mining Code was somewhat delayed. But we had a very successful negotiation at the end with the government, and I think it was a real testament to that fairness, respect, and transparency part of how we run the company.
We are highly thought of by the government of Mali. They are quite comfortable telling us that when we see them, and they hold us up as the example for how they want all gold miners to perform in their country, so that was very successful, and we're all, as you'll hear today, enacting all the things we agreed to in that memorandum of understanding, and so is the government of Mali. The other positive thing that happened in 2024 was a positive preliminary economic assessment report on the Gramalote project in Colombia. What we have coming up shortly in a matter of weeks is the final feasibility study for Gramalote, which we expect to be positive, and that very well could be the next mine that this company goes out to build, so first, it's a feasibility study.
Then we'll look at what we're going to make a development decision. As I mentioned, we expect it to be positive and are looking forward to further developing this great asset in Colombia. On the exploration side, we executed another year of aggressive exploration with a budget of $61 million, and we had significant focus on that was enhancing the Back River around the Goose area, where we have an 80 km belt of banded iron formation, and Vic's going to talk to you about why the geologists are so excited about that. But significant exploration around our existing mines and also grassroots exploration and brownfields exploration, looking to expand reserves and resources, but also looking for new discoveries, something we've done well. I think that one of the things that sets B2Gold apart is that we started an exploration, as did our predecessor company, Bema Gold.
It's very unusual to see an exploration company become a gold producer. Those people that are lucky enough to find an economic deposit normally get taken over by a company, hopefully on a friendly basis, who's actually a producing company that can construct mines and produce them. A long time ago, we said, "Why can't we be all of that? Why can't we be very good at exploration, entrepreneurial, build our own mines, and run our own mines?" So clearly, we've done that very successfully, and I like to think that's one of the keys to our success. Yes, we're becoming a bigger company, but to me, part of the challenge is to retain that entrepreneurial spirit, that exploration vision, the willingness to go and understand the trend.
I'm pleased to say that we've become a much larger company, but that passion for exploration, that passion to continue to be entrepreneurial, is very much still in place today. Talking about growth going forward, we mentioned the fact that 2024, Kelvin touched on it, was a challenging year, and we'll go into some detail about that. The good news is that we have really turned it around, and the first quarter of this year, we were back on track for where we had expected to be, and the first quarter results were excellent. We're looking for a very strong year in 2025, and hence our guidance is back up to approximately a million ounces a year. This slide talks about Goose commercial production optimization, which I touch on. So the golden Goose is about to lay the first golden egg.
The Goose Project construction and development is on track for first production, as I mentioned, literally in a few weeks from now, and all planned construction activities were completed on schedule, process plant development on schedule, and mining so far has been very successful and is ongoing. There's optimization studies to maximize the long-term value of the asset, so we have studies going on internally to look at ways to reduce costs at the Goose mine, but also to increase production. I mentioned the Fekola permitting process. We are pleased that the government recently consolidated our exploration licenses to the north of Fekola. That was an important step, and now we're looking for the government to issue us a permit for our underground mining and also a permit to start production from the regional project, which is to the north.
So the opportunity is to truck ore down from north of Fekola to the Fekola mill. This is a pretty exciting slide when you look at the implications for the company going forward. We have the opportunity to see an additional 750,000 ounces of new production for the company. Now, some of that will fill in for some of the mines that start declining in production, but it's a great place to be in terms of having the growth profile. So obviously, the first one is the Goose Project soon-to-be mine, which will produce 300,000 ounces of gold a year for the first five or six years, but no one thinks that that's going to be the end of production from Goose. When we put out a report, a technical report on a project like this, you can only use the mineral reserves. You can't use resources.
Resources are developed into reserves by more drilling. We've already seen some of that, and we're confident that we're going to continue to expand the mine life of the Goose mine. You'll hear all from Bill about what an extraordinary project this is. You'll hear about the logistical challenges, some of which you saw in the video that we showed. Our Bill's a humble guy, as our construction team is, but I'll tell you, they've done an absolutely amazing job of turning this project around. When we acquired it, there were some surprises along the way about what needed to be done to successfully build the mine. Our team was able to turn it into a B2Gold project and very quickly adjust and very quickly meet the schedule that had been put out before to produce gold by the middle of this year.
The Fekola region, I mentioned the trucking ore, that can add another 180,000 ounces of gold production a year. As I mentioned, we're hoping to get the permit in the third quarter of this year to start that. The roads are built. The facilities are there. All we have to do is dig the ore out of the ground and stick it in a truck and take it 20 km or less down to the Fekola mill. So that's another 180,000 ounces of growth by expanding the Fekola complex. Gramalote, I mentioned briefly, Gramalote is the Colombian project that we're completing the feasibility study. It should be out in the next couple of weeks. As I said, we're expecting a positive study, but that can add another 230,000 ounces of gold production to the company.
And the Antelope deposit, which is a significant new discovery in Namibia, can add another 65,000 ounces a year to our production profile. So that's over 750,000 ounces of potential growth for the company from existing assets. We don't have to go and buy the ounces. We don't have to find them. These are projects we're in. So that's one of the reasons why everyone talks about mergers and acquisitions in our business. I am very pleased to tell you that that's not something we need to do. We need to get value for our shareholders for the existing assets. And as you can see, with these milestones coming up in 2025, we're well on track to realize the growth, extraordinary growth that we see the potential for B2Gold going forward.
So the corporate strategy, we're going to continue to maintain the highest standards you'll hear today: responsible mining, government relations, health, safety, and environmental stewardship, and corporate social responsibility. We are a world leader in many of these. We're very proud of that, and you'll hear more detail as we talk about some of the exciting things we're doing in the local communities and our commitment to these high principles, all coming from what I believe is that fairness, respect, and transparency, peace. We take care of the communities we're in, and we are very environmentally responsible. Those are incredibly important to the entire, not just the management team, but I would say throughout the company. We're going to continue to maximize profitable gold production from existing mines. We're always looking to expand. We've done that successfully in a number of the projects, actually, in all of the projects.
We're going to work to increase mineral reserves and mineral resources in our existing projects. We're also going to, as I mentioned, focus on organic growth by advancing the pipeline of development projects that we've talked about, but also doing a significant amount of brownfield and greenfield exploration. We've always had a good history of acquiring projects, often from companies that are smaller than ourselves, and building them very successfully. We also are one of the, I think, one of the most successful exploration companies in the world as well. This year there's another significant budget for that. The other thing we'll do is maintain. We've done an excellent job. Mike Cinnamond is going to tell you all about it, but we've done an excellent job in becoming financially powerful and strong and maintaining that as we go forward.
The elephant in the room here is probably why the stock price performed so badly when you see the highest gold prices that we've ever seen. These are gold prices we didn't dare to dream about. Obviously, we're benefiting from that because of our fairly healthy, all-in sustaining costs of around $1,400 an ounce. So you do the math, obviously, there's a lot of cash flow generated. But the primary reasons why we struggled last year to get value for our shareholders, and that was really frustrating, to be honest with you. But the reasons were, I would say, twofold. One, because of all the noise around Mali, and there has been a lot. There's been a change, as I mentioned, in the Mining Code. There's been concerns by some shareholders and by the media and some analysts, which I do understand.
There were concerns about where the government was going and what the future was going to look like in Mali for gold mining. That's why I'm pleased to, as we said, report that we have done a very good job of working with the government and have reached an agreement with the government going forward. It's interesting to note that of the seven Western companies working in Mali with mines at various stages, out of the seven, six of them have reached an agreement with the government. So we're not alone, and we're looking forward to growing that agreement going forward. When we first went to Mali in 2014, it was considered to be a very good country to go gold mining in. They had a stable government. They had a reasonable tax regime, etc. So this last year, there have been challenges around that.
As I said, we're pleased to report that we're moving forward, and the other reason why I think our share price didn't respond as many gold producers did to the gold going up so high was that we were building a mine in Northern Canada. Now, if you look at the history of our group, we built two mines, actually, in Northern Russia, which has a lot of challenges, so it's not unusual for us to go to the Arctic and know how to build a mine there. Yet we live in a time of skepticism in the market, somewhat understandably, where there's been too many mines that did not succeed in construction or did not live up to the promises we made, so that's one of the reasons why I think we were delayed in getting that response in the marketplace.
But we're about to change that with the Goose mine coming into production imminently, with the other development projects advancing. As I told you, I really believe this is the time we're finally going to start getting the value that we didn't get last year, and we're looking forward. We've started to see a little bit of it in our stock price, but I think with the catalysts we have in the company going forward, we're going to see a significant, I expect, re-rating in the shares of B2Gold. So I'm going to leave it there and then let some of these other management people get up and talk about all the exciting areas of the company. And I'm going to start with Mike Cinnamond, our Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President. Thank you.
Thanks, Clive. I'm not going to take you all the way through the financials for the year. We've got those results out there. Clive's covered a lot of the highlights in his introductory remarks. I did want to talk a little bit about some of the financings that we did this year and last year and early this year, just to help us move forward and achieve all these things that we were talking about and will be talking about and telling you what we're doing at different sites. That really puts us in good shape. One, we were able to access the capital markets because of the company's track record, how well the operations run. We were able to access those markets, raise financing.
And also, I just want to finish my remarks here by talking about what kind of shape we're in now and how we can look forward and what we can enjoy as we go forward. First, let me just talk about some of the financings we did in 2024. We did prepaid gold sales of $500 million early in the year, and we used those funds for the ongoing development of the Goose Project, which Bill's going to talk a lot about, and also for general corporate purposes. In November, we refreshed our Caterpillar equipment loan facility. I increased it a little bit to $35 million. And CATS has been a great supporter of B2 all around the world over many years at the various projects we've gotten. I think you can rightly expect that you'll see them continue to support us in the future on the fleet side.
Then in December, we refreshed and extended, actually, our revolving credit facility. So we increased that to $800 million. That's four-year money. We use that, or we will use that as we go forward for things like development of the Fekola Regional project, which Clive alluded to, the Antelope project in Namibia as we start to develop that exciting new project for the Namibian operations. And also, another key thing that we'll use that revolver for is managing our working capital needs, particularly as we deliver into the prepaid gold sales ounces, which we will do over the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026. And January of this year, we did a convertible debenture. So that $460 million, that's five-year money. Again, so put a little bit longer-term money, long-term debt into our capital structure.
One of the key things that was useful for is it helped us reduce interest costs. The coupon on that debenture is 2.75%, significantly lower than what we see on the revolver. So we felt that was a good use, a good way to finance what we had drawn on the revolver. And so it's good to put that kind of debt into our structure. And it also allowed us to free up the whole amount of our revolver so that when you get to March 31st, we had cash on hand at $330 million, but we also have a fully undrawn revolving credit facility available to us with $800 million capacity and an extra $200 million accordion feature if we chose to add any more to it. I also wanted to comment that we do have an active fuel hedging program ongoing.
You've certainly seen some volatility in the fuel prices, especially very recently. But we've had an ongoing policy of hedging up to 50% of our operating fuel needs for 12 months out and 25% of a further 12 months out. So we felt that was a good idea to protect the costs that we had in our budget. So we continue to do that, and we will continue to do that moving forward. And looking forward, I think really want to end by saying these are financings that helped us do what we've been doing, as has been described and will be described in more detail. We've been very busy building a new project, planning for the expansion at Fekola. And we've set ourselves up for good shape to start harvesting cash again. This is a cyclical business.
If you think back to when we built Fekola and then expanded Fekola, then we saw a bump in the gold price then, and we really had some significant cash flow years. Now we've had some reinvestment years, especially with Goose. We've reinvested there. We've already put some of the infrastructure in place for Fekola Regional. We're just waiting for a permit there. And now we've set ourselves up well for when we deliver into these fuel hedges post that date, middle of next year, then we'll start generating significant free cash flow again, enjoying this gold price and adding extra cash to our balance sheet and allowing us to plan for the next thing. So just wanted to give you a sort of overall picture there. And it's my pleasure. Now, this is a picture of our next speaker.
I would say this is a fairly recent picture of our Senior VP Ops, Bill Lytle, but this is the fully current version of Bill Lytle, and I'll invite him up to the stand.
It's always tough to go after convertible debenture discussions. Okay, so you saw this chart earlier. Clive had put it up as the growth chart, and in it, there was very clearly talked about the 2024 actuals and the fact that we did have a down year. But I'm not up here to talk about the negatives. For me, this meeting is always a bit of a victory lap. Okay, so I'm here to talk about what we did right in 2024. And the first thing you should notice is the line that's above there. That's actually our cumulative operating cost per ounce sold.
What you can see there is that B2Gold continues to manage the cost of producing ounces. So sometimes it's not just about the ounces that you produce. Sometimes it's about how many dollars have you produced. We don't mine gold. We mine dollars. I wanted to point out, thinking about really who we are as a company and where we operate, I was looking at the various sites, and you could say, okay, we operate in cold environment, but we also operate in the hot environment. We operate in the desert, but we also operate where it's very rainy. We operate in densely populated areas. We operate where it's very sparsely populated. We operate where ASM is, artisanal miners. We operate where artisanal miners aren't. We operate in areas that require strong conservation, both aquatic and in the biosphere. We operate open-pit. We operate underground.
So what you can see is it's not just lucky that we've been successful. The fact of the matter is we have in our group some of the finest world-class specialists that you can really bring together. And I want to say that all of this is operated. All of this is owned and managed, actually, by the VP of Operations, Dan Moore, sitting right here. And as we go through this, I will give shout-outs to some of the people that make me look good because I stand up here giving the numbers, but the reality is it's really the team that does it. Before I switch to the next slide, I just wanted to bring everyone into focus a little bit. So since our three operations have been in production, we have produced approximately 9 million ounces. Okay, that's 9 million ounces.
That's 4 million from Fekola, 3 million just passed at Masbate, and almost 2 million at Otjikoto. So think about that as we go forward and what our opportunities are. It always starts with safety. Okay, and we use this in all of our presentations. And if you look at some of these numbers, some of them are ridiculously good. I'm going to steal from Clive. I hate to steal Cliveism, but Clive always says that if you really had to go to site and you only had one day to do due diligence, what would you look at? You'd look at health and safety, and you'd look at housekeeping. All right?
When people look at us, they should get an idea of how we operate as a company because if you look at our three operations, our three operating mines, they are right at the tip of all of leading industry indicators. How does that happen? The reality is that B2 has their own health and safety management system, which was developed, I think, originally at Masbate, but Ken Jones, the Director of Sustainability, used to be in health and safety, and he adopted it, implemented it at all the sites. Darren Perry, who's our current health and safety manager, who's about as passionate a health and safety guy as you're going to find, has been with the company for six years. So these things have evolved over the last 10 years to become what I would consider a world-class health and safety management system.
So when you talk about things like Masbate going almost seven years without a lost time incident, or you talk about all three operations not having an accident where someone actually was hurt and they couldn't work for an entire year, these are things which are leading standards. At the Goose, we have had some incidents because it's not a mature system yet. We're still working our way into it. But our commitment is that we will bring the health and safety system that we use around the world right back here to Canada to make sure that everyone goes home safe every day. I don't want to spend a lot of time on this slide. I talked about it a little bit already. Just looking at 2024, what you can see is, yes, we had a down year for ounce production.
But if you look at our cash operating costs or all-in sustaining costs, we did quite well. As you saw from that previous graph, we were still kind of right where we had promised the market would be. So once again, delivering on what we said we could do as far as operations. We can't control everything that happens on site, but we can commit that the things we can control, we will control best in class. So this is a slide I just want to show kind of where our ounces come from. And if you look at it, historically, Fekola has been the flagship asset sitting there at more than 50% of production. And that, in the short term, is not going to go away. That is a very good asset for us, which we are continuing to expand into the region, which I'll talk about later.
But what you need to realize is that Goose, which is a world-class asset, which is located in this tier one jurisdiction, everyone considers a very stable jurisdiction, is getting ready to come online. So the ounce production globally is going to start being reduced from Fekola. Remember, we're talking about more than 300,000 ounces over the first five to six years at the Goose for production. Now, I'm just going to briefly blow through each of the mines individually and talk about them. So in Fekola, this is mostly about 2025. What you can see there at the top of the slides, that's what we're proposing. But let's just think about what this project was. So this is a project that we brought on that we started construction in 2015 and brought on in 2017.
Remember, we started this production. We started this mine at 4 million tons per annum. We're currently running, as the base case, 9 million tons per annum. So we brought it in, we expanded it, we've upgraded it. We're now running almost 10 million ounces. I think the budget says 9 million, so I'll stick with 9. And how do we do that? It's a team effort. Dan Clark is here. Dan Clark is the new General Manager. Ray Mead was there for many years who was at Masbate. He has retired. So we've got the next group stepping up. And as part of that, we've actually now brought, I call them the four horsemen of the apocalypse, but three of them are here today. We brought in the Malian group. Birama Cissé is now the country manager.
Ibrahim Toure is now the resident manager, which is the number two position on site. And Issa Diarra is now the VP or the CFO for West Africa. So what you're seeing is this growth of the next generation of B2 coming up. And as we continue to expand our global footprint, people stepping up and continuing to impress me. Think about this. The original, what we purchased, had a 14-year mine life and about 3.45 million ounces. I already said we've mined 4 million out of there. The current mine life, remember, from the beginning, was 18 years at 7.75 million ounces. So what you can see is we have definitely added value with that asset.
We've taken it from a four million ounce producer to a four million tons per annum producer to a 10 million, nine million ton per annum producer, 225% increase in the overall life of mine. And once again, if you look at this, what I wanted to highlight here is some of the statistics across the top. You can see the life of mine profile as we've gone is very, very steady with the exception of 2024. So in 2024, Clive alluded to it, we had two incidents happen. One, we had a human error where a guy tipped over a key piece of equipment, put it out of production for three months. It's a real tribute that it was only three months that we were able to claw that back. And then the second part was we didn't get our regional permit.
So all those ounces, which we thought were going to happen in 2024, are now late into 2025 and maybe 2026. But remember, those ounces didn't go away. They're still there. Also this year, we have the underground coming online. So the underground is something we've been talking about. All of the development is now done. We were waiting on a permit. We have submitted that permit or that technical study. It doesn't even require a full permit. It requires us to update our existing operating permit. That is now in the to and fro between government and company, and we feel that that permit or that approval is imminent, which will allow us in 2025 to add 34,000 ounces and kind of, on average, over the next four to five years, 50,000 ounces. Looking at Otjikoto. Oh, sorry, Masbate. We've moved around. I get you. Okay, looking at Masbate.
So Masbate, remember, this was acquired in 2013, and we also upgraded the plant there to produce eight million tons per annum. As I said, it used to be Ray Mead there. We've switched over to Ryan Rusk, who's been there a long time and has moved up to the GM, Chris Acosta, who's been with the project a long time, still continues to be the president and country manager. The original life of mine for the Masbate mine was 22 years for slightly more than three million ounces. You already heard me say they've just passed over their three million ounces. The current life of mine, we've added four years to that, is 26 years for a total of 4.4 million, a 146% increase. So what you're seeing, once again, at Masbate is a stable operating team, a kind of best-in-class approach.
This is one of those that when you think about a project that is less than 1 gram per ton mining, but then you look at the operating costs or the all-in sustaining costs at $1,300 or $1,370, it points to the fact that they are doing everything right there. They are looking at every nickel and how, in fact, you can operate that. So just going to 2025, very good production so far this year. We're on track. We've had some records as far as throughput. If you look at the ounce profile, we're above budget for Q1. The costs remain below where we've told the market they would be. So overall, a very good production profile for Q1 so far for Masbate. Now I got to go back to Otjikoto. Otjikoto.
Otjikoto is one that is near and dear to my heart because this is one of the ones that, as soon as my first job, really kind of managing the project as a VP, this was my project. And if anyone knows anything about me, you know that I'm passionate, not just about production, but I'm very passionate about sustainability and community social investment, all of that stuff. I took it into production in 2015, and then it was handed over to Mark Dawe. Mark Dawe is normally at this meeting. Just so everyone's aware, Mark Dawe recently this year passed away from cancer, which was a real blow to the company. But the only reason I'm mentioning this is because the team that stepped up after that, that's Eric Barnard as the general manager and John Roos as the country manager, have done a fabulous job.
They picked up the beacon and they've carried it like there was nothing missed. We continue to, what I would say, to manage best in class across the entire operations. Every person that goes to Otjikoto mine says that it is, quite frankly, the best-run mine that they've been to in their career, so hats off to them, so that project started out, that was a 12-year project with 1.34 million ounces. The current life of mine, look at it, if you redid it, it would be 19 years at 2.35 million ounces. A massive step up, and we'll talk once again about the potential to expand that, and like the other projects, if you look at their stability, what you can see is year in and year out, they have delivered on exactly what they said that they were going to do.
Exactly what we told the market, that's what they've delivered. Between Masbate and Otjikoto, it's kind of a test to see who can be the straightest line every year and deliver, which tells me, one, they're not sandbagging, right? We push them on the, when we go into the budgets, we really force them to think about where they're spending money, and we challenge them. But at the end of the day, they are doing what is absolutely right for the shareholder. So growth projects. I don't just want to talk about ounce profile. We will talk about ounce profile for sure. But I also want to talk about the fact that we're doing so much more.
If you look inside each of the projects, and I know that Ken's going to talk about some, and Annette's going to talk to some about this, we really focus on making the project valuable for all stakeholders. That means that the government is happy with the project, the community is happy with the project, the employees are happy with the project, and of course, the shareholders are happy with the project. That's really what we try and focus on. We don't just look at it as a single asset developing ounces. It has to be a global concept. Okay. I skipped around. Okay, so if you look at the Goose, this is the Back River project. I guess this is probably what most people want to talk about today. That's why it went to the front. The Goose project is right on the cusp of producing gold.
Okay, we've told, I think we've been very public that by the end of Q2, we've committed to producing gold. So I'll just tell you kind of where we're at. When I was there, I just came down two weeks ago. We were in the process of commissioning the tailings line. Remember, we had to empty the Echo Pit because that was going to be our tailings facility. That tailings line was commissioned. We had to, in fact, get the powerhouse up and running to make sure we had power. At the end of May, the powerhouse came online. We had to make sure we had material on the stockpile. We're currently sitting with more than 55,000 tons of plus 10 grams waiting to come into the mill. We had to make sure that we had a crusher available. We are currently crushing material.
We had to make sure that we had water to the mill. Two weeks ago, they started up and started running water to the mill. So as of today, or as of yesterday, the mill started to turn. We think on Saturday, we're going to start running material into the mill. So we'll start with waste, then we'll put some low-grade in, then we'll switch to high-grade. So we feel, and knock on wood, barring some unforeseen issue, that by the end of this month, we will see gold coming out of the Goose mill. Then we have three months in our schedule. We've got three months to ramp up to commercial production. That's what we'll be going back up there to focus on. So we feel pretty good that we're going to see gold here shortly and that the commissioning schedule is well within our reach.
Yeah, so just I wanted to talk a little bit about what this really looks like because it's actually two projects almost, right? It is really a logistics project where it's on time, on cost delivery, right, so it's like a FedEx project. That's happening year-round. What you have is, remember, we're shipping stuff to Quebec, then we're taking it up the Arctic Ocean, putting it in a laydown area, letting the snow and the winter come, and then hauling it back down to the Goose. On site, it's all magically happened, right? There's a certain time of the year you get your supplies. There's a certain time of the year you order your supplies. As Clive indicated earlier, this is not our first rodeo. This is not the first time we did this.
We actually did it in Far East Russia, and we did it with the same team. So the team that did it in Russia, Dmitry Malugin , I know he's not here today, led that team, and now we're doing it again. And I can tell you, I don't believe that there's anybody better in industry at doing this, right? You can say in a lot of places, they've got great miners, they've got great metallurgists, but to find someone that knows how to ship on ice roads, how to build ice roads, how to make sure on-time delivery happens, how to make sure everything's put together, that's a rare skill, and B2 is very lucky to have them. So the marine laydown area, well, you can just read the statistics, right? This year, we brought down 4,000 containers, 80 million liters of fuel, right?
That is enough to get us well into March and April of next year with a sufficient spare capacity for the fuel. Everything went off, I'm not going to say without a hitch, but everything arrived on time. It says 90% of the concrete pour. All these statistics are out of date because we're literally every day doing it and getting ready to produce. What I will tell you is that the mining remains on schedule. The milling, as of this morning, remains on schedule. The tailings facility is ready. The powerhouse is ready. And quite frankly, everyone's getting pretty wound up about potentially seeing some gold soon. I think that's probably you too, Clive. Okay, so I've got a couple here on the Fekola Complex. Remember the situation. So we have the Medinandi license, which is where the Fekola operations is.
And then we have Menankoto, which is that confluence of the three permits to the north. The underground is in the Medinandi license, so we've already talked about that. What we're really talking about now is this kind of Menankoto area. That project, we had talked about last year putting it in production. They were still messing around with the codes during that time, so it didn't happen. I will tell you now that that project is ready to be submitted. So that project has been reworked based on the government requirements, and we're just waiting really for them to formalize, I think, the numbering and the actual GPS coordinates for the new license before we can submit. But that is ready to go, okay?
Probably what's most important for this group is that several years ago, we actually built all the infrastructure there. So that project is sitting there basically in care and maintenance right now, waiting for the permit. So when I say completed, the road to Fekola, from Fekola to the Menankoto area is done. All of the infrastructure is in, the shops, the offices, everything is in. So we're just waiting on that permit. So when we talk about the second we get the permit, we're ready to start, that is really the fact. And the fact is the government also wants this project because, as Clive pointed out, it could be as much as 185,000 ounces a year to the project. So it is right on the cusp. I'm not saying that we will see ounces this year.
I can't promise when the government's going to approve that. But let's say it takes them three months. We still have three months that we have to pre-strip, right? So I think there's 20,000 or 25,000 ounces in our budget this year. Doesn't matter. We've got plenty of other sources to actually mine if, in fact, it doesn't come. And that's what this slide's about. We actually currently have the ability to mine from four different areas, right? You've got the Fekola pit, you've got the Cardinal pit, you've got the regional that I just talked about, and of course, you have the underground. So we're getting into this where we have optionality, where we're able to pick and choose where we want to mine and make sure that on an annual basis, we can level it out and meet our production targets.
And this just talks about kind of where it's at for the Fekola Complex. It's more legal than anything. But basically, what it says is they have continued, despite it's tough to really talk about it because it's kind of this boring, plodding legal process where you've got to get all the documentation, submit it, submit it. All of that's happening. The government is definitely engaged with us. The government is definitely saying, "We want this." And every time they ask for something, we turn it around. So we feel confident that this is going to move forward. Talking about Otjikoto, so Otjikoto had originally, I think last year, we were talking about transitioning the underground, right? The open pit was ending. We're going to now produce a couple of years of underground. Then we're going to go to low-grade stockpile.
The exploration team, and I know I think Vic's going to talk about this, has kind of changed that narrative. They've now identified a second underground area, which currently sits with a resource of just under 400,000 ounces, and I have to tell you, it is inferred because, remember, this is underground, so most of the ounces are always inferred, so the first thing that we're talking about really is getting a design, getting a crew in there, getting an exploration drift in there, and drilling this thing off, so we can see a path, and Clive already talked about it on his growth chart. We can see a path for this thing coming in and adding ounces kind of in that maybe 2028, probably 2029 timeframe, and yeah, so we did a PA on it. We're just in the process of finishing up the feasibility internally for this.
What you can see is that the economics look very robust for this. We think that this is absolutely an additional ounce developer for the Otjikoto mine. If you look at the production, you can see as much as 65,000 ounces a year out of this area. Then I think this is the last one is Gramalote. Gramalote is a project that's been in and out of the conversation with B2 for a long time. B2Gold has, we originally were partnered with AngloGold on it, and it was tough because the whole concept was both parties wanted 200,000 ounces a year, so it had to be a big project. For years, we were trying to make this thing fit, a low-grade deposit with high ounce production into something which had reasonable capital costs, and we just could never get there.
Somebody had to exit the project, and luckily, it was Anglo. At the end of the day, B2 now has taken this thing up and really scrutinized exactly what's going on there and thought about, "Is there a sweet little project here?" Originally, we started, I think we actually started at, could it be 3 million tons per annum? And then we ended up, I think we ended up at 6 million tons per annum. And that's kind of where we set to be maximum. At the end of the day, we did a PEA. The PEA showed robust economics and not too bad capital costs, which really is the key to this project. You've got to keep the capital costs down. I know that that feasibility study is done. It's in final review right now, so I can't tell you what the results are.
But I know over the next little bit that B2 is looking forward to putting something out on the results of that study. This is just what it looked like. This was from the PEA, not from the feasibility study. But if you talk about a two-and-a-half-year construction period, there will be some permitting changes that have to happen. But we had meetings this week that said, "If in fact the board likes this project and it goes forward, you could see this thing once again in late 2028, early 2029 making gold." So as Clive said, there's this whole path to more than 700,000 ounces, which B2 already owns. This is not stuff that we have to acquire.
And then normally, I would talk. I spend a lot of time talking about the stuff I'm passionate about, all the stuff that is related to biodiversity and the CSR stuff and all the social stuff we're doing. But at the end of the day, I wanted Ken Jones to talk about it. So I'm just going to tell you that while it's exciting that we are very good at operating mines, it's equally as exciting to show that we are responsible citizens. And the fact is, when you talk about sustainable mining, you're talking about the things that are coming up next. And that's really what the communities care about. And we do that, I would say, better than most. And so I think with that, I'm going to turn it over to Ken Jones, who's the Director of Sustainability.
Thank you, Bill. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you.
It is a pleasure to speak to you today. Before I jump into my comments about B2Gold's sustainability performance, I'd just like to take a minute. I've had the privilege to come up here the last couple of years, and I get to speak about all the wonderful things that B2Gold has accomplished. And 2024 has been another exceptional year. But I'd like to take a minute to recognize a few members of my team that continue to make this positive update possible year in and year out. We have a small sustainability team here in Vancouver, and as I identify them, if you could please stand up. Damian Treadwell and Bruno Cardoso are our environmental and permitting manager and our corporate social responsibility manager, respectively.
They are the ones tirelessly out at our sites, providing the technical guidance and management guidance to help our sites achieve our corporate objectives. Christina Jaworski and Marina Loubser lead our sustainability strategy, our risk management processes, and our ESG disclosure. And Pegah Khosravian brings innovative technologies and opportunities to our operations to lead our decarbonization pathway. This is the team that sets the environmental and CSR policies, standards, and direction for the company. And I'd like to thank them for their commitment to B2Gold and for their instrumental contribution to B2Gold's performance that I get to share with you today. Thank you. So with that, let's talk about how sustainability continues to be a cornerstone for B2Gold's success. At B2Gold, sustainability is not just about compliance. It's about how we create long-term value across all stages of the mine lifecycle.
It's about how we earn and maintain our social license to operate, and it's about how we ensure our growth is responsible, inclusive, and resilient. Our commitment to sustainability starts with people. A critical part of that is investing in our employees and our communities and supporting local businesses and economic growth. In all of our operations, we prioritize local hiring, skills development, and supplier engagement. We are incredibly proud of the fact that over 97% of our employees at our operations are nationals. Personally, I find it incredibly rewarding to be on a mine site, and depending on how your visit coincides with the rotation schedule of the few, the small number of expats at that site, that if you don't overlap with them, you might be one of only a few foreigners on that mine site.
That's a direct result of B2Gold's commitment to not just hiring locals, but training, upskilling, and most importantly, providing opportunity across the entire workforce, and we know that mining can and must be a driver for long-term economic opportunity. That means not just jobs, but good jobs, and not just contracts, but real business growth. We focus on the development of small and medium enterprises within local communities and regions surrounding our operations. In 2024, at our three operating mines, we spent over $600 million in our host communities, and at our Goose Project in Nunavut, of the $420 million committed to suppliers and contractors last year, nearly half of that investment, $200 million, went directly to Kitikmeot qualified businesses. We partner with local institutions, vocational programs, indigenous organizations, and government authorities to build capacity and ensure representation at every level.
Our FEMA project in Mali, a partnership with Global Affairs Canada, improves conditions for women and children in artisanal and small-scale mining communities in the region surrounding the Fekola mine. And our relationship with Kitikmeot Inuit and Nunavut is vital to both B2Gold and Inuit to ensure that B2Gold is able to operate the Goose mine and that Kitikmeot Inuit benefit from our business through employment, training, and contracting opportunities. These investments in people and business create shared value, build resilience, and strengthen the future for our host communities and for B2Gold. B2Gold has always been proud of its commitment to our communities. And 2024 was no exception. From Mali to Namibia, the Philippines, and now Nunavut, we supported programs that respond directly to community needs and priorities, whether it's food security, health services, arts and culture, or job creation.
These are long-term investments in human well-being. In Mali, the Goungoubato Agricultural Project now supports over 300 families and serves as a model for similar investment as we work to expand our regional operations. In Namibia, as that operation approaches the latter stages of its mine life, we've focused investment to ensure resilience with the surrounding communities of Otavi and Otjiwarongo, supporting water distribution and primary school education initiatives. In the Philippines, training programs offer national certification in various skill sets, including scaffolding, electronic products assembly and servicing, welding, and digital job qualifications. Partner industries play a critical role by providing employment opportunities to program graduates. And in 2024 alone, the Masbate mine was able to help generate over 600 local jobs, contributing meaningfully to community growth.
In Canada, at our Goose Project, programs like the Red Fish Art Society offer welding training and employment opportunities to vulnerable Inuit youth, an example of how mining can be a bridge, not a barrier, to community aspirations. Of course, creating long-term value also means caring for the environment. 2024 was a year of continued progress on climate action, water stewardship, and biodiversity conservation. We're making real strides on our decarbonization pathway with over 20% of our electricity now coming from renewable sources. Earlier this year, we nearly doubled the size of our solar plant in Mali, which now eliminates over 60,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually. We also brought a new third-party solar facility online in Namibia, the first to be registered under the country's Modified Single Buyer program.
In the Philippines, in the second half of this year, we will commission eight megawatts of solar capacity, expected to reduce our diesel consumption by over three million liters per year, and in Nunavut, we're advancing permitting and design for wind power at Goose, where we aim to meet up to half of our electricity needs through renewables. Sorry. On water, we've implemented site-specific water management plans and a global strategy that takes a watershed-based, risk-informed approach, recognizing that water connects people, ecosystems, and operations, and our biodiversity work continues to push beyond compliance, from restoring a traditional Arctic char fishery historically used by Inuit in Nunavut to studying chimpanzee ecology in Mali, adding critical data and knowledge for conservation, to protecting coral reefs in the Philippines and black rhinos in Namibia. We're not just reducing our impacts. We're helping ecosystems to recover and to thrive.
And all of this comes together in how we operate. Across our four cornerstone operations, beginning with Masbate in 2013, then Otjikoto, then Fekola, and now Goose coming online here in 2025, we are embedding sustainability into every decision we make, from how we plan infrastructure to how we partner with indigenous and local communities to how we measure and report performance. These achievements are not separate from our core business. They're what make our business possible. From exploration through to closure, our approach to sustainability is what enables us to keep building trust, reducing risk, and unlocking new opportunities across all the regions where we work. Thank you again for your time and the opportunity to share this update. It's a privilege to be a part of a company that continues to lead with purpose and invest in growth that is not just profitable, but sustainable. Thank you.
And now I'd like to introduce Ninette Krohnert , our VP of Human Resources.
I was told step one is to lower the mic following Ken. Good afternoon, everyone. The last decade of company growth has allowed us to improve and strengthen our HR approach in supporting the company over different phases of operation, from exploration through construction, steady state operations to closure planning, and also expansion projects like we've seen in Fekola. Even though every project is unique, we are able to build on learnings and apply best practice to follow a consistent B2Gold approach, but with the ability to speak to the uniqueness of each of our sites and have the agility to do so. As such, each operation has their own fully fledged HR team to deliver the local services and support, while corporate HR provides guidance on policy and governance and other supports, resources, and toolkits.
Globally, we maintain our focus on key KPIs, being local employment, as you've heard from Ken, on equity, diversity, and inclusion, which we refer to as EDI, respectful workplaces, employee retention, and governance. In support of these focus areas, in the last year, we've joined the International Women in Mining, launched a global internal mentorship program in support of EDI and local content, local employment, and we're continuing our multi-year global HR management system implementation and the investment into that to help us optimize the execution of our people strategy. Specifically at the corporate office, we continue looking at avenues to enhance our employee experience and engagement, as well as the employee value proposition. We continue to support our global mobile teams, our expatriates, and ensuring compliance in the various jurisdictions in which we operate and where we assign our talent to.
For our corporate office, we're implementing a performance and goals management program to provide feedback to our employees to help them with their career growth and also provide them with the opportunity to have career development discussions with management. Moving over to Fekola, a major focus over the last year has been employee relations. As you've heard from Bill, we have, as part of our senior management team locally in Mali now, our country manager, our local Fekola resident manager, and also the CFO taking charge of the region. Our employee engagements have kicked up a gear with our GM holding regular town halls and providing regular updates to our employees, offering engagement opportunities. We're also offering various employee events, celebratory days, as well as recognizing days that are important to our employees and talent locally.
Our HR team in Fekola has expanded their approach to talent acquisition, as well as onboarding programs, welcoming new talent into the workplace, and they've also expanded EDI engagements, training, and the internal and external support programs to further EDI. Training and development has also been a key focus and will definitely continue to be as we advance our local content, build capacity at supervisory and management levels, strengthen talent pipelines, and enhance engagements with our staff representatives. Masbate maintains their proactive engagement via their local employee engagement committee to foster a collaborative work environment. They successfully recently passed the Department of Labor and Employment annual inspection that demonstrates a very strong compliance standard, and they've received recognition for this work and their outstanding contributions to the world of work.
Their training and development work covers multiple levels of work, as you've also heard from Ken, from graduate level through to technical skills training, as well as, again, focusing on equity, diversity, and inclusion. In Namibia and at Otjikoto, the main focus is on facilitating the transition to underground mining and providing support to management teams and employees who are affected and involved in open pit operations. This is done through a change management process that heavily relies on transparency, open communication, and strong engagement, taking center stage. They offer regular training and development opportunities, and this will continue throughout the transition phase, alongside employee career assistance, hub, and interview skills workshops that are deployed for our employees, as well as various other support and wellness programs for our employees, as well as their spouses and partners to navigate the process.
All of this and other work is guided and supported by Namibia's very successful Atushe Vamwe, We Are One culture program. This program also drives all other HR, EDI, and engagement work in Namibia. Now here in Nunavut, following a very intensive talent acquisition construction period that is still ongoing, the focus shifts to operational readiness and ensuring that we have the appropriate HR skills and frameworks in place for operations, but also to further embed the B2Gold way of work, respectful workplace philosophies, governance, EDI, and local employment. Local employment remains a core priority in terms of recruitment, workplace supports and assistance programs, and key partnerships and engagements. As we enter the next phase, an on-site employee engagement committee has been established that mirrors the Masbate model that has been so successful.
And this is to ensure management remains close to our employee experience as the project matures into operations. As you will note on the slide, a summary of what I've just spoken to. Governance and the advancement of social performance matters remain part of our service model while we support the operational needs. As one of our next global initiatives, the company will this year conduct its first global employee experience survey. As a growing company, we want to ensure that we have a true understanding of our employees' experience being part of B2Gold. What truly matters, what our strengths are, what the areas are that we need to delve deeper into to ensure we remain an employer of choice. I want to also take this opportunity to thank the HR teams across the world for their steadfast support to the company.
I think I speak for all of us when I say that the pride we feel watching the Nunavut video is the same pride we feel for the accomplishments at all of our sites. Thank you. And with this, I hand over to our Senior Vice President of Exploration, Victor King.
Thank you, Ninette. Good afternoon, everybody. I'd like to quickly start by recognizing the sterling efforts of the exploration team. With Andrew Brown, our VP Exploration, ably assisted and supported by Tyler McKinnon at Technical Services and Claudia Gordillo with the geoscience team here in Vancouver. And then, of course, all of our teams ably led at our mines and exploration sites all over the world. To start, looking back at exploration highlights for 2024 and 2025 to date, you'll note that we spent approximately $10 million less than the budget for 2024. And that was primarily due to not initiating some early-stage drilling in Kazakhstan and the Philippines and Côte d'Ivoire. Notwithstanding, we did complete more drilling than planned, resulting in a lower all-in cost per meter drilled. That is a very useful metric to assess exploration efficiency.
At Back River, infill and extension drilling at the Goose Project significantly enhanced our understanding of the geological controls on mineralization, producing improved models and resource estimates. Drilling between Goose Main and Nuvuyak identified a new discovery that we've called Mammoth, and a busy and successful summer program on our regional targets identified numerous drill targets that will be tackled this year. In Namibia, an initial resource estimate was released for the Antelope deposit, a new underground discovery that Bill has already mentioned. A feasibility study is currently underway, and should that be positive, it would lead to enhanced production at Otjikoto for years to come. In Mali, an underground mineral resource estimate has been completed downplunge of the Fekola open pit, and approximately as well, 240,000 ounces have been added in a satellite open pit proximal to the Fekola infrastructure.
In the Philippines, to leverage all of our experience in the country, a wholly owned subsidiary, B2Gold Philippines Exploration, has just concluded an agreement for our first project in Eastern Mindanao. Looking at our exploration focus for 2025, we have a budget of $61 million U.S. dollars, of which more than half will be dedicated to a major exploration effort at Back River, split between brownfields exploration at Goose and greenfields exploration on multiple regional projects. Brownfields projects will also continue at our main mines and operations at Fekola, Otjikoto, and Masbate. Greenfields exploration is planned for newly acquired projects in Kazakhstan and the Philippines, and we continue to look for and evaluate new projects for acquisition, joint venture, and/or strategic investment.
Focusing now on Back River, where our large land position, including multiple projects, extends over more than 80 kilometers of prospective banded iron formations that host the mineralization in this district. At the Goose Project, we will be drilling extensions of the Umwelt and Llama deposits, following up on the Mammoth discovery that I mentioned earlier, as well as drill testing a number of new targets on the Goose permit. Approximately 12 meters of drilling is planned for this project. A significant push will be made on the regional projects following up on targets identified in the successful summer program at the other projects on George, Boulder, Boot, Del, Beach, and Needle. 13,000 meters of diamond drilling will be allocated there. In addition, further surface work, including mapping, soil sampling, airborne geophysics, will be undertaken to define more targets for follow-up in 2026.
This map shows up the magnetic signature of the folded banded iron formations that host the mineralization at Goose. It shows the distribution of the deposits that contain the published resources, which include Umwelt, Llama, Echo, Goose Main, and Nuvuyak, and also illustrated here are numerous targets in close proximity to the Goose mine infrastructure that remain to be tested, some of which will be drilled this year. Focusing now on the two main deposits at the Goose Project. Shown here are two long sections, Umwelt on the left and Llama on the right. Both deposits are outcrop at surface and consequently start as open pits, transitioning to underground mining. Both are high-grade with some spectacular intersections, which are highlighted in the slide.
At Umwelt, 10 and a half grams per tonne over 21 meters and 19 grams over 16 meters were intersected in infill drilling last year, confirming the continuity of a high-grade ore shoot that has been drilled to a vertical depth of approximately 800 meters below surface. This year, we'll be stepping out a further 250 meters from our deepest hole to extend this deposit. At Llama, shown here on the right, impressive results include 29 and a half grams per tonne over 14 meters and 14 grams over 28 meters. Further infill drilling will be undertaken at Llama underground to convert what is currently an inferred resource to the indicated category. In addition, we will be drilling the sparsely drilled Llama gap, where nearly 20 grams per tonne over 25 meters has already been intersected. Like Umwelt, Llama is also open downplunge.
This project section illustrates the exciting discovery made at what we now call Mammoth. It is located between the Goose Main deposit, which outcrops at surface, and Nuvuyak, which comprises one of our highest-grade underground resources. The discovery hole intersected nearly 18 grams per tonne over 11 meters. In addition, drilling at Nuvuyak itself intersected 6 grams over 29 meters, extending the deposit 200 meters downplunge. As previously mentioned, our 2024 summer program identified multiple targets on several of our regional projects. Time limits me to provide only one example of the many of these projects that will be followed up this year, are being followed up this year. To illustrate, at Boot, which is located approximately 20 kilometers north of the Goose mine infrastructure, two targets, Hammer and Rooster, already have significant drill intersections close to surface, shown here and are ready to follow up.
The geophysical signature of the mineralized units highlights the potential for further targets on this project, the same for all the other projects that we have in the Back River district. Moving on now to Namibia and our Otjikoto mine, where we have a budget of $7 million for 2025. Shown here is a linear magnetic signature that tracks the mineralization from the Otjikoto and Wolfshag pits at the top of the map southward to our Antelope discovery, which Bill has already mentioned. At the core of the Antelope deposit is the Springbok zone, where we announced an inferred resource of 465,000 ounces at 5.62 grams per ton. This is now being used to inform the ongoing feasibility study that Bill mentioned for a new underground development that will add production and extend the life of mine at Otjikoto.
Drilling has already identified potential to extend the Antelope deposit over what is now six kilometers from the Springbok zone northward towards the Otjikoto pit and southward to what we call the Mag Offshoot target. In Mali, a $9 million budget has been allocated for 2025. Drilling is being undertaken on both the Medinandi permit, where the Fekola mine and infrastructure are located, and the newly consolidated exploration permit at Menankoto. On the Medinandi permit, drilling continues to infill and extend the Fekola ore shoot , where underground mining is expected to commence shortly, as mentioned by Bill. This long section highlights the continuity of that Fekola ore shoot , and particularly with the recent drilling that has confirmed grades and widths that are concurrent with the existing mineral resource model and estimate that we have. Additional exploration outside will be tested to the north.
Bill also mentioned that drilling beneath the underground development, beneath the main ore shoot itself, we've intersected what may be a parallel ore shoot . Grades of 4 grams per tonne over 12 meters and 6 grams over nearly 14 meters are very encouraging and are being followed up. On the Menankoto permit, the focus is on extending high-grade open-pittable sulfide resources at the existing zones, which include Mamba, Cobra, and Taipan . At Masbate in the Philippines, the 2025 budget is $3 million, and the focus continues to be to identify drill tests and drill test zones, which are shown here as the yellow circles and occur within 3 to 11 kilometers south of the main Masbate infrastructure. Staying in the Philippines, we have, as I mentioned earlier, incorporated B2Gold Philippines Exploration to leverage our experience and reputation that has been built at the Masbate mine.
Country-scale prospectivity analysis has drawn us to focus on Eastern Mindanao, which is on a portion of the prolific corridor defined by the crustal scale Philippine fault that is shown on the map. This is elephant country, as highlighted in the graph showing the 25 largest gold and copper-gold, porphyry, and epithermal deposits in the Pacific region. BPE has just concluded an agreement on our first project in this area, and we expect fieldwork to start within weeks. Lastly, a listing of our strategic investments supporting junior companies with projects that have great potential and solid technical management. Members of our exploration team continue to provide technical support and guidance to these companies, as prescribed in the associated investor rights agreements that we have that went with these investments.
The value of our portfolio has grown and is now worth $112 million, led by the outstanding success with Snowline at their Valley deposit in the Yukon. Founders Metals has provided us with our first step onto the Guiana Shield in Suriname, a geological terrain very similar to West Africa, which we know very well. Omega Pacific exposes us to the potential of a 147-kilometer Cape Ray corridor in Newfoundland. And lastly, our investment in Prospector Metals gives us the opportunity to be involved in an early-stage but exciting project at the Mike Lake in the Yukon. With that, thank you very much, and I'd like to hand it over to Clive for closing comments. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for your attention. I know it's been a bit of a long presentation, but I think you can see why there's just so much information to cover. We wanted to give you a fulsome story about what we're doing. You can probably see why we're very excited about 2025 and going forward at B2Gold. Before we open up for Q&A, I just want to thank some people. First of all, I want to thank all of our stakeholders. We couldn't do this without the tremendous people throughout our organization and all the other people that support what we do. All of our employees, 6,500 employees all around the world. I'd like to thank our executive team. It's a real pleasure for me to work with such a great team. Also, the directors for their advice and support.
We've been a strong group, very diversified board, and they've been very helpful in guiding the management of the company. I'd personally like to thank Kelvin. He's been a great addition as the Chairman of the company, and I appreciate his support and guidance. I'd also like to thank the governments, all the places we work. At the end of the day, we were very fortunate, I think. I think we've earned it to have very good government relations. And without those governments supporting what we do, it would be very hard. I'd also, of course, like to thank our shareholders for their support, not just in good times, but in challenging times as well. So thank you all for coming here today, and I will welcome any questions that anybody might have. There's a couple of microphones I see around.
Are there any questions that we can answer or any questions that have come in online? Okay. Well, I guess that was a pretty complete presentation then, with a lack of questions. So once again, thank you all very much.