West Wits completes R1.1bn funding package to bring Qala Shallows to full production

West Wits Mining said on 22 June 2026 that it had executed a definitive loan agreement with Absa Bank and Nedbank comprising three facilities worth a combined R1.115bn (about $96.4m), completing the funding package needed to take its Qala Shallows gold project through ramp-up to full production.

Three facilities, three purposes

The package comprised a R875m senior loan for project development, ramp-up and production; a R150m working-capital facility to fund day-to-day operations at a lower cost of debt; and a R90m cost-overrun facility to provide a contingency buffer during construction and ramp-up. Chief executive Rudi Deysel said the additional facilities gave the company "the commercial flexibility any operating mine requires," building on a binding term sheet for the senior loan signed on 21 May 2026.

Backing a first-of-its-kind restart

Qala Shallows, which poured its first gold in March 2026, is the first phase of West Wits's Witwatersrand Basin Project and the first new underground gold mine to be developed in South Africa in more than 15 years. The operation is targeting steady-state annual production of 70,000oz by the fourth quarter of 2028, underpinned by a definitive feasibility study showing a post-tax net present value of $500m and a 16.8-year life of mine, against a broader resource base of 7.2 million ounces at 4g/t gold across the wider project area.

Securing bank funding, rather than relying solely on equity markets, marked a turning point for a company that had spent years developing the project. It also reflected renewed lender appetite for well-defined, brownfields-adjacent gold projects in South Africa's historic Witwatersrand Basin at a time of record gold prices.

Sources

• Mining.com.au: West Wits seals Qala Shallows funding, 22 Jun 2026

Photo: A gold mine pit on the West Rand, the Witwatersrand Basin region where West Wits Mining's Qala Shallows project is located. MinkhensoTiyani, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.