The Opuwo Cobalt Project, located near the town of Opuwo in Namibia’s Kunene Region, is once again at a turning point.
Situated in the prospective Kaoko Belt, the project has been one of the country’s few large-scale cobalt developments, but ownership has changed hands several times over the past decade.
Today, the project is in transition, with Celsius Resources Limited having agreed in 2025 to exit Namibia and sell its interests, including those in Opuwo, to an international buyer.
The Opuwo deposit was first consolidated under Gecko Cobalt (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Gecko Namibia (Pty) Ltd, a privately held Namibian group founded in 2008 by Australian businessman Philip Coates. Gecko Cobalt was later renamed Opuwo Cobalt (Pty) Ltd, which undertook the early fieldwork that identified the prospectivity of the Dolomite Ore Formation (DOF) in the Kaoko Belt.
In 2017, Celsius Resources Ltd, an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed exploration and development company headquartered in Perth, acquired Gecko Cobalt’s interests. Celsius is majority-owned by institutional and retail investors in Australia, with its board led by Managing Director Peter Hume.
Under Celsius, systematic exploration drilling, mapping, and metallurgical testwork began, and within a year, the company had delivered a significant milestone.
In 2018, Celsius published a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate, which confirmed Opuwo as a large, stratabound cobalt-copper project with associated zinc credits.
The resource estimate defined a JORC resource of 112.4 million tonnes grading 0.11% cobalt, 0.41% copper, and 0.43% zinc, containing approximately 126,100 tonnes of cobalt, 451,300 tonnes of copper, and 459,500 tonnes of zinc.
This places Opuwo among the largest undeveloped cobalt resources outside the Democratic Republic of Congo, where world-class deposits such as Tenke Fungurume (owned by China Molybdenum Co., Ltd.) and Mutanda (owned by Glencore plc) dominate the supply.
Celsius advanced a series of studies to evaluate the project’s development potential, including scoping-level assessments of processing options.
The company investigated the production of battery-grade cobalt sulphate, aligning the project with the emerging demand for electric vehicle supply chains.
Metallurgical testwork confirmed that conventional flotation could produce cobalt, copper, and zinc concentrates, although downstream refining infrastructure would be required to maximise value.
To support this work, Celsius invested heavily. As of June 2024, the company had spent approximately US$6.1 million (approximately N$114 million) on the Opuwo Cobalt Project.
However, weaker cobalt markets and a shifting strategic focus led to a write-down.
In its December 2024 half-year results, Celsius recorded an impairment of AU$6.18 million (approximately N$115 million) on its Namibian assets, effectively acknowledging that the project had stalled due to the absence of immediate development financing.
Despite these advances, financing challenges and shifting market conditions slowed Celsius’s progress.
The cobalt price cycle, which peaked in 2018 before falling sharply, constrained the company’s ability to secure funding for definitive feasibility work.
By 2020–2022, exploration expenditure had been pared back, and Celsius increasingly focused on its copper and gold projects in the Philippines through its subsidiary Makilala Mining Company, Inc., and in Australia.
In 2025, Celsius Resources announced that it would exit Namibia entirely, selling its Namibian subsidiaries, including Opuwo, to an international buyer.
While details of the purchaser and the final transaction remain pending, the sale marks a significant shift in the project’s trajectory.
Once the handover is complete, Opuwo will be steered by new leadership with the capital and technical focus required to re-energise development.
The project’s strategic importance remains clear.
With global cobalt demand expected to double by 2030, Opuwo offers a potential non-DRC supply of the metal, underpinned by Namibia’s stable policy environment and established mining culture.
Its large resource base provides a foundation for a long-life operation, with the added benefit of copper and zinc by-products that could enhance project economics.
The Opuwo Cobalt Project’s next chapter now rests with its incoming owner.
From Gecko Cobalt’s first steps under Gecko Namibia to Celsius Resources’ discovery drilling and JORC definition—backed by more than US$6 million in investment—the groundwork has been laid.
The question ahead is whether the new custodian will advance Opuwo into production, positioning Namibia as a meaningful player in the global battery metals supply chain.
