Henk Diederichs

AFTER a huge year in 2024, Wia Gold maintained good momentum last year and seems to be forging ahead on this year as well. Founding executive chairperson Josef El-Raghy recently announced he would become non-executive following the appointment of Henk Diederichs. El-Raghy assembled Wia around a small group of ex-colleagues from former UK-listed gold miner, Centamin. “It’s a neat little team,” he told Miningmx last year. “We all get on. We don’t need to talk every day. Everyone just gets their job done.” 

Diederichs, in contrast, is an outsider – he was chief operating officer of Predictive Discovery, the Guinea explorer purchased by Robex Resources – but he will be looking to integrate immediately. Amid sky-rocketing gold prices, there’s no time to waste in developing Wia’s three million ounce Kokoseb Gold resource in Namibia. A September 2025 scoping study outlined a $358.8m initial open-pit operation aiming at 177,000oz a year in gold production. All-in sustaining costs are estimated to be $1,265/oz over the first five years of an 11-year mine life. At a conservative gold price assumption of $2,600/oz, the project has a post-tax net present value (5% discount rate) of $646m, an internal rate of return of 38%, and payback period of 1.8 years.

Wia is targeting the completion of a definitive feasibility study by mid-2026, after which the company plans to move into the project delivery phase. Alongside permitting, financing and development activities, Wia has already identified underground potential at Kokoseb. An initial underground resource is also due in mid-2026, the company has said.