
Josef El-Raghy
EXECUTIVE CHAIR: Wia Gold
‘The progress made at the Kokoseb gold discovery over the past year has been exceptional’
THE arrival of Josef El-Raghy at Wia Gold has given the gold developer the boost it needed. Some nearby M&A and a record gold price haven’t hurt either. El-Raghy, the man behind gold success story Centamin, had been a shareholder in Wia since 2020 and held 6.2% of the company as of November’s annual general meeting. It wasn’t until April 2024 that El-Raghy signed on as executive chair of Wia. It is an unpaid role, though he has long-term incentives tied to performance milestones.
He also regularly buys shares on-market, and did so as recently as November. The stock has as much as doubled since his arrival on the board. Wia’s primary asset is the Kokoseb Gold Project in Namibia, which has a resource of 66 million tons at a grade of 1g/t gold for 2.12Moz of gold, at a discovery cost of just $2.80/oz. Wia raised A$30m in November to accelerate drilling to increase the resource and kick off a scoping study.
Analysts from Argonaut compared Kokoseb to the nearby three-million-ounce Twin Hills Project, which was recently acquired for C$368m by China’s Yintai Gold after trumping an earlier bid by Dundee Precious Metals. “We think there’s still further study work and de-risking to be done before Wia becomes a target but the recent A$417m transaction for Osino Resources provides a good yardstick transaction value for Wia,” analysts said.
LIFE OF JOSEF
A former stockbroker, El-Raghy joined Centamin as managing director in August 2002 and oversaw the company’s transition from junior explorer to successful gold miner. He chaired Centamin, which was acquired by AngloGold Ashanti last year, until 2019. El-Raghy is the chair of Queensland copper producer AIC Mines and joined Wia as executive chair in April 2024.