$10M fire at B2Gold mine damages
crusher circuit system
Thursday’s fire will reduce production by ‘small amount’ but no injuries reported, CEO says
A fire at B2Gold’s Goose Mine has damaged operations, but no one was injured, says company CEO Clive Johnson. (File photo by Arty Sarkisian)
A fire Thursday at B2Gold’s Goose Mine south of Cambridge Bay caused damage to equipment that will cost an estimated $10 million to repair and will slow production, but no one was injured, says company president and CEO Clive Johnson.
A fire Thursday caused damage at B2Gold’s Goose Mine that will take an estimated $10 million to repair, but no injuries were reported, says CEO Clive Johnson. (Photo courtesy of B2Gold)
The fire was confined to a small area and only the crushing circuit was damaged, Johnson said in a phone interview Monday from Iqaluit, where he is attending the Nunavut Mining Symposium.
That circuit involves a series of crushers that work in several stages to break the rocks small enough so they can be processed in the mill.
“The crusher circuit is an important part of the operation. This [fire] affected the crushing plant,” Johnson said.
“The key thing in a mining operation like this is the mill, where you finely grind down the ore and process it and that’s the most important building,” he said, adding the mill was not affected.
Reduced crushing capacity means less production, Johnson said.
“The bottom line is it will probably cost 10,000 ounces of gold in this quarter, which is a small amount.”
Approximately 1,150 people work at the Goose Mine as of September 2025.
The company projects overall gold production at the facility to be virtually unchanged from prior to the fire, at between 170,000 and 230,000 ounces for the year.
Mobile crushers have been moved to the area to return processing to normal capacity while the damaged crushing circuit is repaired. The company maintains a certain number of mobile crushers on site and is sourcing more to be transferred to the area by summer.
Goose Mine is located in the Back River area, about 400 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
In a news release Sunday, B2Gold said repairs should be completed this fall. Johnson called the $10 million damage estimate “a little on the high side.”
In the meantime, production will continue but at a reduced capacity, he said.
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