CHAMWE KAIRA
Outgoing President and CEO of Osino Resources, Heye Daun has said as a small exploration company with no income, the company was dependent on shareholder funding and equity that came from investors. The company’s flagship is the Twin Hills Gold Project in the Erongo Region.
Daun became an entrepreneur in 2010, when he acquired the Otjikoto project. This led to being introduced to Canadian capital markets. He raised money on the Canadian markets and later sold the Otjikoto project to B2Gold of Canada. This proved to Daun that gold mining in Namibia could be successful and contribute to economic development.
The ever entrepreneur, Daun said this involvement with the Otjikoto project helped him as he started raising money for the development of Osino Resources. He drove the exploration drive from 2016 to 2019, which led to the discovery of the Twin Hills deposit in 2019.
“The dream started becoming reality. We then raised more money and drilled from 2019 to 2023. Twin Hill will become another Otjikoto or better,” he said.
He described that a mine can only be built if the financing is in place, which was one of the biggest constraint that Osino had. The company spent about 130 million Canadian dollars on exploration.
Daun disclosed that Osino Resources needs US$400 million to develop the gold mine. He said Osino never had that sort of capital to develop the mine.
“A year ago we started looking around for a potential partner. After a lengthy process, an agreement was reached with Shanjin International of China to buy the project.
“We have found them to be great partners, very practical, very pragmatic, Shanjin has already committed capital to the pre-construction of the company.”
Daun said selling the company he founded has left him with mixed feelings. “I have a laughing eye and crying eye. I have a laughing eye because, I am happy, to have found Shanjin. The crying eye is of course, I am sad to let the baby go but I am very excited to be part of something much bigger now, I feel very much relieved, that the weight of financing is off my shoulder.”
He added that most exploration companies die because funding dries up. “Commodities go up and down, it’s a highly risky business. We reached the end of the road in terms of the ability to raise the really big capital.”
The company is now in transition to become Shanjin’s first ever international subsidiary. Osino accepted Shanjin in February and it took about six months for the transaction to close. Daun said he will stay on in the company in an adviser capacity to help and ensure a successful transition.
“I am not intending to be the uncle who does not want to leave the party, I am staying to help.”
President of Shanjin, Xingong Ou said the company was listed on the stock exchange in China and has a market capitalisation of US$6.5 billion. The company is one of the top five gold producers in China and is involved in exploration, mining and processing of gold. Ou said in 2023, the company produced sevn tonnes of gold, 190 tons of silver. The company registered a net profit of US$200 million in the first half of 2024. In China, the company operates four gold mines and one silver mine.
Ou said Shanjin has in the past two years recorded a zero safety incident and is committed to uphold safety standards and environmental protection.
“We value people as our key asset. It will be in line with Osino’s principles and we will maximize local hiring of people, 90% of our employees will be Namibians.”
Ou added that Twin Hills is the sixth addition to the Shanjin’s stable. “It is also our first overseas project, Shanjin is committed to providing full support for the development of Twin Hills. We hope to develop this project to production in the near future.”
