Wia Gold has strengthened its leadership team by appointing internationally experienced mining executive John Mussett as Project Director, with responsibility for advancing the company’s flagship Kokoseb Gold Project in Namibia from exploration to mine development.
The appointment, announced after the close of the company’s June quarter, comes as Kokoseb moves into a more advanced phase following the delivery of a maiden mineral resource estimate of 2.93 million ounces of gold and the start of technical studies to support a definitive feasibility study.
Mussett brings more than three decades of experience in delivering large-scale mining developments across Africa and South America.
Most recently, he served as Project Director and Senior Vice President of Projects at Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange-listed Aris Mining Corporation, where he managed a portfolio of mining projects valued at approximately US$2.6 billion across Colombia and Guyana.
Before joining Aris Mining, Mussett played a central role in one of Africa’s most significant gold mine redevelopment projects.
As Project Director and Vice President Projects at AngloGold Ashanti, he led the redevelopment and expansion of the Obuasi Gold Mine in Ghana, a project valued at approximately US$500 million.
The Obuasi redevelopment involved far more than reopening an underground mine. It included construction of underground mining infrastructure, a seven-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant, a paste-fill plant, a tailings storage facility, power and water infrastructure, accommodation facilities and associated non-process infrastructure.
Mussett oversaw the project from board approval through engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning to first gold production, ultimately delivering the development safely, on schedule and within budget.
The appointment signals that Kokoseb is entering a new stage where project execution and development expertise become as important as exploration success.
While the company has spent recent years expanding the resource base through aggressive drilling, attention is now shifting towards engineering, mine design, permitting and financing as it works towards establishing Namibia’s next large-scale gold mine.
Mussett’s experience leading complex projects through every stage of the development cycle is expected to strengthen Wia’s ability to manage the transition.
His background includes coordinating multidisciplinary engineering teams, overseeing procurement and construction programmes and delivering major capital projects within approved budgets and schedules, skills that will become increasingly important as Kokoseb advances towards investment decisions.
The appointment follows a period of rapid progress at Kokoseb, where drilling has continued to extend mineralisation beyond the maiden resource and technical work is gathering pace ahead of the planned definitive feasibility study.
