Kokoseb will operate as a large-scale, round-the-clock open-pit gold mine, built on continuous drilling, blasting, hauling and on-site processing, with gold doré bars produced on site and flown out every two weeks from a dedicated helipad located near the processing plant for final refining.
At full operation, the project is expected to employ approximately 656 people, comprising both staff and contractors across mining, processing and administrative functions.
Most of these jobs are expected to be filled by Namibians, with only a limited number of expatriate specialists required for technical and management roles.
The workforce will operate on a 24-hour, three-shift system to sustain continuous production, with the majority accommodated on site in a 710-bed village under fly-in/fly-out and drive-in/drive-out arrangements, while some employees from nearby towns such as Uis and Omaruru will be transported daily to the site.
Beyond direct employment, the project is also expected to generate additional economic activity through procurement, services and supply chains linked to the mine.
That operational model sits at the centre of what is shaping up to be one of Namibia’s most significant new gold developments.
The Kokoseb Gold Project, being advanced by WIA Gold Limited in partnership with Epangelo Mining Company through the Mandarin Investments joint venture, is located on mining licence 274 within EPL 4818 in the Erongo Region, about 15 kilometres from Okombahe and 30 kilometres from Uis.
The mine is designed as a 12-year conventional open-pit operation with a main pit and a satellite pit, supported by a 5.25 million tonnes per annum processing plant.
Over an estimated 12-year life of mine, Kokoseb is expected to extract about 58.9 million tonnes of ore and 369 million tonnes of waste, translating into a strip ratio of roughly 6.3 to 1. The operation is targeting total gold recovery of approximately 1.65 million ounces, placing it firmly in the category of Namibia’s emerging mid- to large-scale gold producers.
Mining will follow a standard but intensive cycle. Ore and waste will be drilled and blasted using ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosives, then loaded by excavators onto large haul trucks. High-grade ore will be fed directly into the processing plant, while lower-grade material will be stockpiled and treated later, allowing the operation to optimise recovery over the full life of mine.
At the processing plant, ore will pass through a SAG and ball mill crushing circuit before undergoing gravity recovery and carbon-in-leach processing. The plant will also incorporate Anglo American Research Laboratories elution technology and electrowinning to produce gold doré bars on site. This integrated processing route is designed to maximise recovery efficiency from a deposit averaging about 1.0 gram per tonne, with higher-grade zones reaching around 1.4 grams per tonne.
What strengthens the project’s fundamentals is the scale and growth of the resource. Since exploration began in late 2021, Kokoseb has expanded rapidly, reaching a mineral resource estimate of 2.93 million ounces of gold as of June 2025, including a high-grade component of over 2 million ounces. The deposit remains open along strike and at depth, suggesting that the current mine plan may not be the final limit of the resource.
Infrastructure is being built to support a self-contained mining operation in a relatively remote area. The project will include three waste rock dumps, a dry-stack tailings storage facility, processing plant, explosives storage, workshops, fuel facilities and a dedicated helipad integrated into the gold handling system, alongside an accommodation village capable of housing 710 workers.
Environmental controls are central to the project design. Tailings will undergo cyanide destruction before being filtered and stacked dry, reducing water usage and long-term contamination risks. Waste rock and topsoil will be handled separately to enable progressive rehabilitation during operations rather than waiting until closure. The mine layout itself has been adjusted to avoid sensitive ecological areas and minimise disturbance to key landscape features within the licence area.
The project’s footprint, however, intersects with existing infrastructure and community land. A section of the D3714 district road currently runs across the orebody and will need to be diverted to allow mining to proceed safely. The licence area also borders the Tsiseb and Ohungu conservancies within the Okombahe Reserve, placing the project within a landscape where mining, conservation and community interests will need to coexist.
Kokoseb remains at a regulatory stage. An application for mining licence 274 was submitted to the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy in October 2025 and is still under review. Once approved, construction is expected to take about two years before the mine moves into full production.
What emerges from the project design is a clear picture of how Kokoseb will function: a high-throughput, mechanically driven gold operation employing hundreds of people continuously, with infrastructure, logistics and environmental safeguards scaled to match its size. At the same time, its long-term success will depend not only on production performance, but also on how effectively it navigates regulatory approvals, land-use pressures, and community expectations in one of Namibia’s more sensitive regions.
