• Kavango appointed Jasper Musadaidzwa as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director with immediate effect
• FY2025 revenue reached US$1.72 million while cost of sales stood at US$4.10 million
• Hillside began processing Kavango’s own material through its 50-tonne-per-day plant in July 2026

Harare — Kavango Resources has appointed former AngloGold Ashanti executive Jasper Musadaidzwa as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director with immediate effect as the London and VFEX-listed miner develops its Zimbabwe gold portfolio following the start of own-ore processing at Hillside in July 2026.

Musadaidzwa brings more than 27 years of mining experience and has held senior positions across African mining operations. His previous responsibilities included four AngloGold Ashanti mines producing approximately 1.1 million ounces of gold annually, generating about US$2 billion in revenue and employing more than 14,000 people. His most recent assignment in Guinea included work that extended mine life from 2026 to 2034, doubled net present value and restored sustainable cash generation at an underperforming operation.

His appointment comes during a year in which Kavango has moved further into mine development and processing in Zimbabwe. The company has spent several years acquiring gold assets, drilling, defining resources and raising capital, with Hillside providing its first production platform and the installation of dedicated processing capacity creating a route for treating its own mined material.

Kavango’s 2025 financial results establish the economics entering that phase. Revenue increased to US$1.72 million from US$445,000 in 2024, with a substantial contribution coming from processing ore produced by artisanal miners and further treatment of residual material. Cost of sales reached US$4.10 million and the resulting gross loss was US$2.39 million, while pre-licence exploration expenditure increased to US$7.68 million.

The wider investment programme contributed to a US$14.93 million loss before tax for the year, up from US$8.66 million in 2024, while net cash used in operating activities reached US$11.44 million. Kavango ended the year with US$4.60 million in cash after raising US$16.45 million through share issuance during 2025, with further capital raised from Zimbabwean and UK investors in February 2026.

Those numbers provide the financial baseline for the investment already made across exploration, mine development and processing. The company entered 2026 with a growing asset base and revenue-generating activity, while shareholder funding remained an important source of capital for continued development.

The addition of Kavango’s own processing infrastructure brings a new set of operating measures into that investment cycle. Hillside’s 50-tonne-per-day plant started processing Kavango’s own material on 1 July, with average capacity utilisation reaching approximately 69% during the reported commissioning period between 18 and 28 July.

Metallurgical test work had previously achieved gold recoveries above 95% under laboratory conditions, while Kavango expects commercial recovery of approximately 90% to 93%. Sustained operation of the plant will establish actual performance across tonnes processed, head grade, utilisation, recovery, downtime and recovered ounces, providing the operating data needed to assess the economics of the processing model.

The resource feeding that infrastructure is also developing. Bill’s Luck carries a maiden resource of approximately 33,900 ounces at 2.68 grams per tonne, while Nightshift adds roughly 19,000 ounces at 0.86 grams per tonne, taking the currently defined Hillside resource to approximately 52,900 ounces.

At an annual production rate of 8,000 ounces, that contained resource equates arithmetically to about 6.6 years of output before adjustments for recovery losses, dilution, resource classification and mineability. Continued drilling and resource conversion therefore form part of the production programme required to support higher processing volumes and extend the period over which the infrastructure can operate.

Kavango has previously outlined a pathway towards 250 tonnes of processing capacity per day, with larger modular mechanised mining configurations considered as the resource base develops. Progress towards higher throughput consequently brings resource definition, mine planning and processing investment into the same capital-allocation programme, with ore availability required to support each expansion stage.

The company’s 2025 production provides an early reference point for the size of the operating platform. Kavango produced 23.4 kilograms of gold during the year, equivalent to approximately 752 ounces, before the dedicated 50-tonne-per-day processing plant entered operation.

Musadaidzwa’s experience at significantly larger mining operations gives Kavango additional management capacity as that platform develops. The approximately 1.1 million ounces produced annually across the four AngloGold Ashanti operations previously under his responsibility establishes the scale and complexity of his previous operating exposure, while Kavango’s production trajectory remains governed by its own resource base, mine design, processing infrastructure, workforce and capital programme.

Management forms one component of that operating system. Geological definition determines available ore and grade, mine planning governs extraction, plant performance determines throughput and recovery, while equipment reliability, workforce productivity and operating costs influence the margin generated from each recovered ounce. Capital allocation determines how quickly additional resources and processing capacity can be developed around those operating results.

Commercial production through the new configuration should also provide greater visibility over Kavango’s sustainable cost per recovered ounce. The company does not yet have a sufficiently mature operating history from the Hillside plant to establish a reliable commercial all-in sustaining cost or comparable unit-cost measure, leaving actual mining and processing performance to establish the margin available from its gold production.

The need for that evidence is apparent in the 2025 financial baseline. Revenue expanded almost fourfold during the year and Kavango increased activity across its Zimbabwe operations, with cost of sales reaching more than twice the revenue generated and operating activities consuming US$11.44 million of cash. Subsequent reporting from Hillside can establish how own-ore processing changes the relationship between production, revenue, costs and cash generation.

The wider Zimbabwe portfolio adds another layer to that capital requirement. Kavango holds Nara and additional assets in the Filabusi area alongside Hillside, giving the group several potential destinations for exploration and development expenditure. Cash generated by producing operations would expand the capital available for those projects and allow a greater portion of future exploration and development to be financed from within the mining portfolio.

The next 12 to 18 months provide measurable operating markers across Hillside. Sustained plant utilisation, commercial recovery approaching the expected 90% to 93% range, additional resource definition and progression towards higher processing capacity can establish the physical performance of the operation, while unit costs, gross margins and operating cash generation can establish its financial performance.

Kavango’s Zimbabwe strategy is therefore entering a stage where resource growth and mine development can increasingly be assessed alongside recovered ounces and cash economics. The capital already invested has delivered assets, exploration results and dedicated processing infrastructure, with the next reporting periods providing evidence on how effectively that infrastructure converts Kavango’s resource base into sustained gold production and cash available for continued development.

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