Wia Gold has secured N$1.1 billion (A$92 million) in fresh funding to accelerate development of its Kokoseb Gold Project as the company pushes toward completion of a definitive feasibility study for what it describes as one of Africa’s emerging large-scale gold development projects.
The ASX-listed company announced on 20 May 2026 that it had received binding commitments from new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors through a placement priced at A$0.46 per share.
The placement involves the issuance of 200 million new fully paid ordinary shares and represents one of the larger recent capital raises in Namibia’s gold exploration and development sector.
The offer price represented an 8% discount to Wia Gold’s last traded price of A$0.50 on 15 May 2026 and a 5.9% discount to the company’s 10-day volume weighted average price of A$0.489.
Wia Gold chief executive officer Henk Diederichs said the strong response from offshore institutional investors reflected growing confidence in the Kokoseb project and Namibia’s broader mining sector.
“We are very pleased with the strong demand for this Placement, particularly from high-quality offshore institutional investors who recognise Kokoseb’s potential to emerge as one of Africa’s next major gold mines,” Diederichs said.
“This Placement materially strengthens our balance sheet at a pivotal stage in the Project’s development and provides a clear pathway to advance key workstreams as we progress towards DFS completion and ultimately production.”
The Kokoseb Gold Project is located within Namibia’s northwestern Damara Belt, a geological region that is increasingly attracting exploration interest due to its gold potential.
The project emerged as one of Namibia’s major recent gold discoveries after Wia Gold reported a rapidly expanding resource base supported by multiple drilling campaigns across the Kokoseb system.
The company has been advancing exploration, metallurgical studies, environmental work and development planning as it moves toward completion of a definitive feasibility study targeted for the second half of 2026.
Funds raised through the placement will primarily be directed toward execution-readiness programmes, early works activities, pre-production capital expenditure, project studies, metallurgical test work, permitting, environmental and social programmes, and continued regional exploration activities.
Wia also said part of the funding would support broader project generation activities across its Namibian exploration tenure.
The latest funding significantly strengthens the company’s balance sheet ahead of key development milestones and positions Kokoseb among the more advanced emerging gold projects currently under development in Namibia.
Namibia’s gold sector has attracted increasing investor attention in recent years following expansion projects at existing operations such as QKR Namibia Navachab Gold Mine and B2Gold’s Otjikoto mine, alongside growing exploration activity across the Damara Belt.
Argonaut Securities acted as global coordinator, joint lead manager and joint bookrunner for the placement, while Tamesis Partners acted as joint lead manager, joint bookrunner and European selling agent. Stifel Nicolaus Canada acted as co-manager.
Settlement of the placement is expected on 26 May 2026, with allotment and quotation of the new shares scheduled for 27 May 2026.
