Wia Gold has ratcheted up momentum at its Kokoseb Gold Project by reshaping its leadership and sharpening its development pathway as the company moves decisively into a feasibility-driven year.
The appointment of Henk Diederichs as managing director and chief executive officer from 1 February 2026 signals a deliberate shift from exploration toward execution.
Diederichs brings more than 20 years of experience in African mining project development and operations, most recently as chief operating officer of Predictive Discovery, where he played a central role in advancing the Tier 1 Bankan Gold Project in Guinea through its Definitive Feasibility Study.
Diederichs track record also includes leading OreCorp through the advancement of the Nyanzaga Gold Project in Tanzania before its acquisition by Perseus Mining in 2024, as well as senior involvement in the development and operation of Equinox Minerals’ Lumwana Copper Mine in Zambia.
The leadership change comes as Wia intensifies work on Kokoseb, its flagship gold project in Namibia’s Erongo Region.
The project hosts an updated indicated and inferred mineral resource of about 2.93 million ounces of gold at an average grade of roughly 1.0 g/t, underpinning the company’s development ambitions.
Chairman Josef El-Raghy said the Board was delighted to welcome Diederichs as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Wia.
El-Raghy said the appointment marks a milestone for the company as it accelerates the transition from exploration to development by progressing Kokoseb through the Definitive Feasibility Study phase following the completion of the Scoping Study in September 2025. According to El-Raghy, Henk brings extensive leadership experience and a proven track record of successfully advancing resource projects from feasibility through development to production, particularly across Africa.
“His appointment strengthens Wia’s capability to deliver on its strategy of transforming Kokoseb into a significant, development-ready gold asset,” El-Raghy said.
Diederichs expressed excitement to lead the development and construction of Kokoseb, one of Africa’s most promising and robust gold mining projects. He said he looks forward to building a strong development and operations team in Namibia to deliver a highly value-accretive project that benefits all our stakeholders, with the significant progress achieved to date and key milestones ahead, including the completion of the DFS and securing the necessary permits to bring Kokoseb into production.
Kokoseb is held in a joint venture structure, with Wia owning 80 per cent and Namibia’s state-owned Epangelo Mining Company holding the remaining 20 per cent.
Kokoseb is a large-scale gold discovery in Namibia’s Erongo Region, identified in 2021 and rapidly advanced through successive drilling campaigns.
The project lies along a mineralised corridor with no history of large-scale gold mining.
It has since emerged as one of the country’s most significant recent gold discoveries, with Wia Gold focusing on fast-tracking the asset from discovery through resource definition and early economic studies.
A scoping study completed in the third quarter of 2025 outlined an initial open-pit operation with an estimated mine life of about 11 years.
The scoping-level mine plan envisages mining approximately 59 million tonnes of material at just under 1.0 g/t gold, capturing about 1.8 million ounces from the broader resource base.
Ore would be processed through a conventional carbon-in-leach plant at a rate of around 5.25 million tonnes per year.
Gold production is forecast to average roughly 146,000 ounces per year over the life of mine, rising to about 177,000 ounces per year during the first five years.
Economically, the scoping study highlighted Kokoseb’s leverage to the gold price.
Pre-production capital expenditure was estimated at around US$359 million at scoping study level, with life-of-mine all-in sustaining costs averaging about US$1,447 per ounce under the same assumptions.
At a gold price of US$2,600 per ounce, the project generated a post-tax net present value of about US$646 million and an internal rate of return of roughly 38 per cent, with materially higher returns at higher gold prices.
The company’s focus in 2026 is on completing a Definitive Feasibility Study in the second half of the year. That work will consolidate detailed mine design, metallurgical optimisation, infrastructure planning and updated economic modelling.
Metallurgical test work to date has indicated straightforward processing, with gold recoveries consistently exceeding 90 per cent using conventional crushing, grinding and CIL circuits, reducing technical risk as the project advances.
Permitting is progressing alongside technical studies. A mining licence application was submitted to Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy in October 2025, while the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment process is well advanced, with formal submission expected early in 2026.
These steps are critical to clearing the regulatory pathway toward an exploitation permit.
Exploration remains part of the development story. Drilling continues to test strike and depth extensions of the Kokoseb system, which remains open over more than five kilometres.
The programme aims to convert inferred ounces into higher-confidence indicated resources and to assess conceptual underground potential beneath the planned open pits.
Funding considerations remain front and centre as work accelerates.
A capital raising of A$30 million completed in 2025 supported exploration and scoping activities, while additional funding options are expected to be assessed to carry the project through feasibility and into potential construction readiness.
With a strengthened leadership team, an expanded resource base and a clearly defined work programme, Wia Gold has positioned Kokoseb for a pivotal year. Delivery of the Definitive Feasibility Study, alongside permitting progress and continued resource growth, would move the project beyond exploration success and closer to becoming one of Namibia’s next large-scale gold developments.
