AMN - BOTSWANA: B2Gold meets first earn-in conditions

B2Gold Corp has met the conditions of the first tranche of an earn-in option agreement with Galane Gold Ltd in respect to certain Botswana prospecting sites and has confirmed its intent to begin second tranche expenditures of US$2 million. These sites are around Galane's Mupane property.

Galane Gold CEO Nick Brodie said, "B2Gold has completed detailed mapping of the most prospective areas of the prospecting licences and has identified the areas where it wishes to commence a more detailed exploration campaign.

“Galane remains confident and excited that B2Gold, from the progress so far, is the best team to unlock the known exploration potential of the Tati Greenstone Belt."

Under the earn-in agreement, B2Gold has the option to indirectly acquire, in three tranches, up to 70% of the shares of Southern Cross Exploration and Development (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Galane Gold, which has received two gold prospecting licences over an aggregate of about 520sqkm around the Mupane property, excluding its current operations and mining licences.

B2Gold has agreed to and will carry out exploration on the properties with guidance received from a jointly formed technical committee.

Upon B2Gold acquiring shares of Southern Cross upon the completion of Tranche 2, the earn-in agreement will be replaced by a definitive shareholders agreement governing the parties' interests in Southern Cross.

Galane is an unhedged gold producer and explorer with mining operations and exploration tenements in Botswana and South Africa.

Galane's management team comprises senior mining professionals with extensive experience in managing mining and processing operations and large-scale exploration programs. The company is committed to operating at world-class standards and is focused on the safety of its employees, respecting the environment, and contributing to the communities in which it operates.

In the company's half-year report, Brodie said: "Given our production results from the second quarter, we are continuing to target production for the year of 32,000 ounces at Mupane in Botswana. This is despite a poor start to the second quarter of 2019 due to the failure of the main SAG mill motor in the first quarter of 2019, which was fixed in May 2019.

"The Galaxy project in South Africa is now in steady-state production on the existing refurbished plant but has not yet reached commercial production. We have exceeded our internal targets for refurbishing the plant, mining from the Princeton mineralised body and producing concentrate.

"Given the change in pace, we are now targeting 2,300 ounces of payable gold to be produced in 2019 from Galaxy. We expect to reach full production at Galaxy in the second half of 2020."

www.GalaneGold.com