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The workforce has rapidly grown to 103 and is projected to hit around 150 by March, before the locally engaged labour force swells past 1,000 in year three as production scales to more than 65,000 tonnes per month.
Above ground, the site is taking shape. A new fleet maintenance workshop is already up and running, joined by a fresh lamp room built to handle the growing ranks of underground workers. Around it, teams are clearing ground, building the blasting bay and carving out early terraces - all laying the groundwork for the big-ticket surface infrastructure program that will roll out through to 2027.
The company’s wider Witwatersrand Basin project sits on sacred mining turf that has coughed up a remarkable 62,000 tonnes of gold since the early 1900’s.
This is the birthplace of modern gold mining, once dominated by giants like Rand Mines and Durban Roodepoort Deep. carving out what remains the richest goldfield on Earth. To this day, the basin holds the record for producing more than 22 per cent of all the gold ever mined.
Between 2021 and 2023, West Wits stitched together a hefty 5.025-million-ounce resource across its entire footprint. But it was the Qala Shallows deposit that emerged as the standout starter mine, boasting 10.7 million tonnes at 2.98 grams per tonne for just over a million ounces, including 383,000 ounces of bankable reserves.
Adding to its credentials, Qala Shallows already has the bones of a mine in place with an adit, a decline and a shaft ready to be used, giving West Wits a rare jump-start. As development starts to ramp up, ore production is tipped to climb from 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes a month early next year, before soaring to about 65,000 tonnes a month by year three.
However, the project’s marmalade drop moment came in July when the company unveiled a definitive feasibility study that stunned. It pointed to a net present value of US$500 million (A$755 million) and an internal rate of return of 81 per cent presenting the sort of economics that most junior miners would frame on the wall.
And the production outlook is just as compelling. Qala Shallows is forecast to pump out around 70,000 ounces of gold every year for 12 straight years, spinning off an enormous US$983 million (A$1.5 billion) in post-tax free cashflow based on a conservative US$2850 ounce gold price.
Perhaps the most striking of all though, is that all-in sustaining costs are expected to sit at just US$1289 (A$1950) an ounce. That plants Qala Shallows firmly in the low-cost producer camp - rare air in the gold sector, and a powerful foundation for long-term value creation.
The message from West Wits is simple. Qala Shallows is no longer a project in planning, but a mine being built in real time. With funding secured, development firing on multiple fronts and ore already on the surface, the company is running downwind with a full spinnaker.
And with the first gold pour now just months away, that momentum looks set to turn into a watershed moment for both West Wits and the historic Witwatersrand Basin.
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