B2Gold Namibia spent US$107 million procuring local goods and services to over 1,000 suppliers for the Otjikoto mine in 2024.
B2Gold’s Responsible Mining Report says payments to providers of capital totalled US$278 million in 2024, an increase of US$59 million over 2023.
The company has approximately 70% of its suppliers registered in Namibia and 20% in South Africa.
The report says 63.4% of the procurement came from in-country purchases, with approximately 2.4% of total purchases spent directly on SMEs within the mine’s area of influence.
According to the report, B2Gold Namibia has been facilitating a program to increase regional content opportunities through the Cross-Sector Collaboration to Prioritise Local Procurement, a group of Namibian companies and suppliers, since 2022.
The program focuses on sharing resources and costs, as well as increasing opportunities for SMEs to conduct business with the industry.
In Namibia, the exploration program at the Otjikoto Mine was the largest since 2012, with a focus on drilling the recently discovered Antelope deposit.
During 2024, B2Gold reinforced its commitment to maximising shareholder value, distributing a total of US$211 million in dividends to its shareholders (including US$25 million paid through the issuance of 9 million B2Gold shares under the Company’s Dividend Reinvestment Plan), compared to US$200 million in 2023. Also, in 2024, interest relating to the financing component contained in the Gold Prepay totalled US$38 million.
For 2024, payments to governments totalled US$564 million, an increase of US$129 million compared with 2023, mainly due to higher income and gold production realised at both Masbate (US$37 million) and Otjikoto (US$36 million) in 2024.
