B2Gold : 2024 Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour (2024 Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour)

Published: 2025-06-02 11:20:06 ET BTO.TO

Published on 06/02/2025 at 11:20

For year ended December 31, 2024

May 15, 2025

B2Gold Corp. and its subsidiaries as listed in the Approval and Attestation section below (collectively, "B2Gold" or the "Company") is committed to developing resources in a way that is protective of people, respectful of human rights and cultural heritage, creates socio-economic development, and mitigates environmental and biodiversity impacts.

This report describes B2Gold's commitment to human rights and the actions that the Company has taken to assess and manage the risks of forced and child labour in our supply chains. This report has been prepared by the Company in response to the reporting requirements under Canada's Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act (Act) for the financial year ended December 31, 2024.

For the purposes of this report, the Reporting Entities are listed in the Approval and Attestation section below. In this report, unless otherwise stated, references to "B2Gold", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" and similar expressions include the Reporting Entities.

All financial figures are quoted in US dollars, unless otherwise noted. Data used in this report has not been externally assured.

B2Gold is an international senior gold producer committed to responsible mining practices, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Founded in 2007, B2Gold is a publicly traded company with shares listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BTO) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BTG). The Company has three operating mines (one mine in each of Mali, the Philippines, and Namibia) and one mine under construction (Goose Project in Nunavut, Canada). In addition, we have a portfolio of development and exploration projects in several countries including Colombia. Figure 1 shows B2Gold's locations of operation.

B2Gold had a workforce of 6,4781employees across its various sites and offices as of December 31, 2024.

Sustainability management is embedded at all levels of B2Gold, from the Board of Directors (Board) to our site employees. The Sustainability Committee of the Board of Directors is responsible for overall sustainability oversight for the Company, including risks to human rights. The Sustainability Director, who reports to the Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO), has overall responsibility for the Company's sustainability strategy and oversees the Sustainability function and performance. The Sustainability department develops and implements sustainability-related management frameworks; ensures conformance with relevant standards, objectives and targets; and tracks and reports on our environmental and social performance across our global operations. Each operation has site-based environmental and social teams, which report to the General Manager, and regularly engage with our corporate Sustainability department through meetings, formal reports and site visits.

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Manager is responsible for implementing our human rights strategy, which is overseen by the Sustainability Director and the COO. Significant risks, impacts, and management strategies are reported to the Sustainability Committee of the Board.

From exploration to mine closure, B2Gold procures a diverse range of goods and services which include heavy equipment, process chemicals, fuel and oils, explosives, equipment parts, and professional services. Our corporate and site Supply Chain departments work with suppliers and contractors based on the principles of long-term partnership, fair competition, and ethical conduct.

In 2024, over $802 million of goods and services were procured from local and host country businesses. In Mali, on-shore purchasing experienced a substantial increase (as a percentage of overall purchasing), rising to 74% in 2024, versus 63% in 2023. This includes 46 subsidiaries of international companies that are registered and active in Mali. In 2024, on-shore purchasing (as a percentage of overall purchasing) in the Philippines was approximately 71% and in Namibia was approximately 63%.

B2Gold recognizes its responsibility to identify risks to human rights at all our sites and throughout our partnerships and business relationships and to actively work to address them. We are committed to producing gold in a manner that does not cause, support, or benefit unlawful armed conflict or contribute to serious human right abuses or breaches of international humanitarian law.

Our approach to human rights is outlined in various policies and performance standards:

The Code of Business Conduct and Ethics defines the standards and values which B2Gold expects its personnel to follow. It includes acting in accordance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations and

‌1Employee total includes our three operating mines and project/construction employees. The reported numbers include full-time and part-time permanent employees as well as temporary employees.

managing and operating Company assets in a manner that is consistent with our values and respects the human rights of our employees and communities. In 2025, we will update the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics to address forced and child labour, followed by relevant company-wide training.

Our Social Responsibility and Human Rights Policy states our commitment to respect human rights as defined in the International Bill of Human Rights and we are committed to embedding these principles across all aspects of our operations.

Our People Management Policy prohibits modern slavery, forced labour and child labour. All employees join the Company voluntarily, perform work without threat or intimidation, are free to leave the workplace after work and resign at their own free will. We do not retain employees' personal identity documents or money and only employ people who are eighteen years and older.

Our Non-Discrimination and Harassment Policy reinforces the commitment of the Company to provide and maintain a safe and supportive work environment where individual human rights and dignity are respected.

Our Human Rights Performance Standard is aligned with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and sets the operational requirements to conduct human rights due diligence to prevent and manage adverse impacts we cause, contribute to, or are linked to.

Our Security and Human Rights Performance Standard outlines our requirements for respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms while maintaining the security of B2Gold operations. Our management of human rights issues related to security practices is based on our commitment to implement the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR). We respect human rights defenders, freedom of expression, and demonstration that occurs in a peaceful and legal manner. We are committed to providing access to remedy for any victims of human rights violations for which we are responsible.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCOC) and Supply Chain Policy addresses risks to human rights in our supply chain. Our SCOC outlines our expectations for suppliers to act in accordance with the Company's commitments in their management of health and safety, labour and human rights, the environment, business conduct and ethics, and socio-economic development. All active suppliers working with our operations in Mali, the Philippines and Namibia have signed our SCOC and new suppliers are required to agree to the SCOC prior to being engaged by the Company. Our Supply Chain Policy sets out pre-qualification and tendering processes and procedures, commercial terms and conditions, and ongoing oversight to monitor the business practices of our suppliers and contractors. The Supply Chain Policy helps guide our supply chain activities to be performed in a consistent, controlled and ethical manner. We identify salient2human rights issues through human rights assessments and VPSHR assessments, which we regularly update at our operations. These assessments are aligned with the UNGPs, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, and the Human Rights Impact Assessment Guidance and Toolbox prepared by the Danish Institute for Human Rights. As part of these assessments, interviews are conducted with internal and external stakeholders to identify risks to human rights and impacts and to understand how they are managed.

‌2Salient human rights issues are those human rights most at risk of severe negative impacts associated with our business activities or relationships.

When determining how to manage our salient human rights issues to reduce risks and address impacts, we consider the nature of our relationship to the issues:

Human rights and/or VPSHR assessments are conducted regularly by expert consultants at our Fekola, Masbate, and Otjikoto operations. In 2024, we completed an initial Human Rights Assessment at our Goose Project and updated VPSHR risk assessments at our Fekola, Masbate and Otjikoto operations and the Gramalote Project in Colombia.

Depending on the site, the following areas of potential human rights impacts are assessed during human rights and VPSHR assessments:

Theme

Areas of Potential Human Rights Impacts

Control Measures

Worker's rights

Non-discrimination and equal opportunity

Freedom from forced or child labour

Freedom of association and collective bargaining

Just and favourable working conditions

Safe and healthy working conditions

Policies: Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Social Responsibility and Human Rights Policy, Non-Discrimination and Harassment Policy, OHS Policy, SCOC, Supply Chain Policy

Social Performance Standards

Employee engagement committees and unions

Employee grievance mechanisms

Human rights of community members

Land acquisition and resettlement

Community health and safety

Environment and water

Cultural heritage

Policies: Social Responsibility and Human Rights Policy, Environment and Biodiversity Policy

Social Performance Standards

Community engagement committees

Community development/investment plans

Community feedback mechanisms

Livelihood restoration activities

Disclaimer

B2Gold Corp. published this content on June 02, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on June 02, 2025 at 15:19 UTC.