West Wits repays US$12.5m loan, clears path to ZAR 875m facility

• West Wits Mining (ASX:WWI) has repaid its US$12.5 million Nebari loan, clearing a key condition for a ZAR 875 million (~US$53 million) South African senior loan facility.
• The new facility with Absa Bank and Nedbank CIB is described by the company as fully funding the Qala Shallows Project to ~70,000oz of annual production.
• West Wits says the funding shift de‑risks the Witwatersrand Basin Project’s first stage and allows management to focus on ramping up production.

West Wits Mining (ASX:WWI) has repaid in full its US$12.5 million Nebari loan facility, removing associated security and obligations and satisfying the final condition precedent to financial close of a ZAR 875 million (~US$53 million) senior loan facility with Absa Bank and Nedbank CIB.

The company said it is now in the final stages of documentation and expects financial close and first drawdown of the South African senior loan to occur imminently, completing the project finance structure for the Qala Shallows gold project.

“Repaying the Nebari Facility and clearing the path to financial close of the SA Senior Loan is a significant milestone for West Wits and our shareholders,” said West Wits Mining (ASX:WWI) Managing Director and CEO Rudi Deysel, who added that the company’s focus is now on executing the final steps to draw down and accelerate the Qala Shallows ramp‑up toward steady‑state production.

West Wits noted that the original Nebari funding package of up to US$35 million, of which US$12.5 million was drawn in November 2025, provided critical capital to ramp up underground operations, purchase key plant and equipment and maintain ore deliveries to Sibanye‑Stillwater’s Ezulwini processing plant during early development.

The company stated that the ZAR 875 million senior loan, arranged with Absa Bank and Nedbank CIB, two large South African mining finance institutions, is intended to fully fund Qala Shallows to steady‑state output of about 70,000 ounces of gold per year, based on a July 2025 definitive feasibility study that outlined a 16.8‑year mine life, 944,000 ounces of total production and an all‑in sustaining cost of US$1,181 per ounce.

Following the announcement the West Wits Mining (ASX:WWI) share price was unchanged at its last reported level.

According to that DFS, West Wits said that at a gold price of US$2,850 per ounce the project would deliver a post‑tax net present value (7.5% discount rate) of US$500 million, an internal rate of return of 81% and an eight‑month payback from the end of the peak funding period, and the company described the senior loan as a strong institutional endorsement of the project’s technical and commercial foundations.

Qala Shallows is the first stage of West Wits’ Witwatersrand Basin Project, which the company says hosts a 7.24‑million‑ounce JORC mineral resource at 4.0 grams per tonne gold, with first gold production achieved in October 2025 and an inaugural gold pour completed at Ezulwini on 17 March 2026.

Near‑term milestones now include loan financial close, ongoing underground development, higher ore delivery rates, a planned grid power connection in the December 2026 quarter and advancement of a “Project 200” scoping study targeting an aspirational production profile of about 200,000 ounces per year.