WIA Gold said on Monday it had signed indicative terms with Canada’s Sprott to borrow $360m for construction of Kokoseb, a proposed 150,000-ounce-a-year gold project in Namibia.
Sprott, working through its specialised finance unit, Sprott Resource Lending, also promised to buy $15m of Wia scrip in a future equity raise. The agreement is subject to detailed due diligence.
The agreement comes as Wia disclosed findings from a definitive feasibility study for Kokoseb. In the study, the company forecast about 1.84 million ounces in gold output over 14 years from an open-pit mine.
Capital for Kokoseb is estimated to be $475m, including $67m in pre-production mining and $40m in contingencies. The capital estimate also sets $50m aside for additional water and power infrastructure with an eye to expansion.
Wia also said today that Kokoseb’s updated mineral resource estimate had increased 29% to a total of 3.78 million ounces, though not all of this is at the highest confidence. Wia has assumed a base case gold price of $3,600/oz in its calculations.
Henk Diederichs, MD and CEO of Wia, said the agreement with Sprott was “an extremely strong endorsement”. Focus now falls on securing final approvals and the documents for a definitive facility agreement.
The project is situated near Okombahe in the Erongo region, within Namibia’s mineral-rich Damara gold belt. Wia recently raised A$92m to speed up drilling, technical studies and overall project development, taking advantage of rising gold prices.
Wia was started by non-executive chair Josef El-Raghy, previously chair of Centamin, the Egytpian miner that was bought by AngloGold Ashanti in 2025 for $2.5bn in cash and shares. In founding Wia, he bought over some of his Centamin colleagues.
As for Diederichs, he was previously chief operating officer of Predictive Discovery, the Guinea gold exploration and development firm bought by Robex Resources last year. “It’s a neat little team,” said El Raghy of Wia last year in an interview with Miningmx. “We all get on. We don’t need to talk every day. Everyone just gets their job done.”
