This works for me instead, if anybody is interested.

Appender!string mime64 = appender!string;


for (ulong i = 0; i < file.size; i += 57) {
  ubyte[57] buf;
  auto chunk_size = min(file.size - i, buf.length);
  file.read(buf[0 .. chunk_size]);
  mime64.put(Base64.encode(buf[0 .. chunk_size]));
}