Nyanzaga Gold Project
FROM TUSKER HILL TO FIRST GOLD
Nyanzaga G
FROM TUSKER HIL PRODUCED BY
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Jo
Gold Project
LL TO FIRST GOLD
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outh-west of Mwanza, more than 4,000 people are bringing Perseus Mining’s Nyanzaga Gold Project towards first production. With construction around 80 per cent complete by late September 2026, more than 10 million hours worked without a losttime injury and first gold targeted for January 2027, the project is approaching production as a considerably larger mine than the one Perseus originally set out to build. When Matthew Cavedon looks across Nyanzaga,
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his attention goes first to the people. “The plant is taking shape, but that is not what I watch first. I watch the people,” the Nyanzaga General Manager presented in September 2026, referring to more than 4,000 people working towards first gold. There is plenty around them to draw the eye. At Tusker Hill, excavators and haul trucks are stripping the ground that will expose the future orebody. The primary crusher stands at the front of a processing route that now stretches
SOTTA MINING CORPORATION LIMITED
“Before its first pour, Nyanzaga has become the largest single component of Perseus Mining’s reported Ore Reserve base.”
through conveyors, SAG and ball milling and seven carbon-in-leach tanks. Across the wider development, teams are completing electrical systems, water infrastructure, the tailings facility and the permanent buildings from which the mine will operate. For Perseus Mining, those visible milestones carry strategic weight. Nyanzaga, about 60 kilometres southwest of Mwanza in Tanzania’s Lake Victoria Goldfields, will become the company’s fourth producing gold mine and its
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Setting the gold standard Trusted. Independent. Committed. SGS SETS THE BENCHMARK FOR RELIABLE ASSAYS IN TANZANIA SGS Tanzania has a network of geochemists that can perform high-quality ore-grade analysis. We can perform single or multi-element analyses using a variety of methods, including fire assays, acid digestion, cyanide leach, tailored to the needs of the client. These are complemented by environmental services such as sampling and assays, ambient air monitoring and stack emission sampling and testing. Our local operations are supported by a global network of more than 500 laboratories in over 116 countries.
SGS Tanzania African Assay Laboratories (Tanzania) Ltd Nyanza Glass Work Compound, Mkuyuni Industrial Area, Shinyanga Road P.O. Box 1826 Mwanza, Tanzania
sgs.mwanza@sgs.com +255 28255 0861 www.sgs.com/naturalresources
SOTTA MINING CORPORATION LIMITED
first in Tanzania. Perseus holds an 80 per cent interest in Sotta Mining Corporation Limited, the Tanzanian company developing the project, while the Government of Tanzania holds a 20 per cent free-carried interest. Perseus acquired Nyanzaga through its takeover of OreCorp in 2024 and approved development in April 2025 around a US$523 million construction budget. Since then, drilling has continued alongside construction, and the mine approaching production is materially larger than the development approved at that investment decision. Approximately 82,700 metres of reversecirculation and diamond drilling completed after the acquisition helped increase Nyanzaga’s Ore Reserve from around 2.3 million ounces to 4.109 million ounces at 30 June 2026. The latest reserve contains 95.7 million tonnes grading approximately 1.34 grams of gold per tonne. That growth supports an expected mine life of around 16 years, including approximately 14 years
producing more than 200,000 ounces annually. Nyanzaga now contains close to 59 per cent of Perseus Mining’s total reported Ore Reserves, giving the company a major long-term position in one of East Africa’s established gold regions before the first ounce has been poured.
Opening the ground
Nyanzaga is centred on the Tusker and Kilimani deposits, with Tusker providing the scale for the long-term mine and Kilimani contributing an important source of early ore. At Tusker Hill, pre-stripping is removing material above and around the orebody before production begins. At Kilimani, grade-control drilling is refining the boundary between ore and waste at the spacing required for day-to-day mining decisions. Perseus has increased the amount of mining being completed ahead of first gold from an original expectation of around 4.6 million bank cubic metres to more than seven million.
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For an operating team preparing to commission a new plant, that creates flexibility. Exposed ore and developed stockpiles allow different feed sources to be selected and blended while the processing circuit settles into continuous operation. It reduces the dependence of plant start-up on a single mining face and gives the operation more control over one of the variables that matters most during ramp-up: reliable feed. The expanded reserve strengthens that position over a much longer horizon. Infrastructure being commissioned today — from workshops and power systems to process equipment — is being built around an operation that could remain active well into the 2040s.
Following the ore
The technical story begins at the primary crusher. Metso is supplying a Superior MKIII 4265 primary gyratory crusher together with Premier SAG and ball mills. The grinding circuit provides around 21 MW of installed power and carries out one of the most energy-intensive stages of the process:
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reducing crushed rock until the mineralisation is sufficiently liberated for gold recovery. Ore then moves through gravity recovery and carbon-in-leach treatment before loaded carbon reaches the final recovery circuit and gold room. Lycopodium has carried the central engineering, procurement and construction-management role across that development. Its approximately A$48 million EPCM contract covers the processing plant and selected non-process infrastructure, including electrical reticulation, water systems, workshops, warehousing and tailings-related infrastructure. The relationship began well before construction. Lycopodium worked through Nyanzaga’s feasibility and front-end engineering stages, giving the project continuity from study to execution. For a development entering commissioning, that continuity reduces the handover gap between the people who designed the plant and those responsible for bringing it into service. By the third quarter of 2026, the construction
SOTTA MINING CORPORATION LIMITED emphasis had shifted decisively towards that point. Mill installation was advancing, CIL tanks had moved through hydrostatic testing into installation of launders and associated steelwork, and the primary crusher and reclaim areas were being completed ahead of dry commissioning. Emergency generation had reached site, while water, electrical and tailings infrastructure were progressing towards operating readiness. The result is less a collection of individual construction milestones than a single
commissioning challenge: every major system now has to become available at the same time.
Project Partners
That integration depends on specialist companies working around the major equipment. Fowlerex Technologies was engaged through Lycopodium to design and supply air-pollutioncontrol systems for the reclaim tunnel, kiln and gold room. Its package includes wetdust scrubbing within the reclaim tunnel,
“The additional drilling has turned Nyanzaga into a much larger surface-mining operation than the project Perseus originally approved.”
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furnace-fume treatment and mercury-vapour control associated with the final gold-recovery process. The engineering addresses conditions that workers will experience every day once the plant is operating. In an enclosed reclaim environment, continuously moving dry material can generate significant airborne dust. Fowlerex’s system uses wet scrubbing, air movement and associated pumping equipment to remove particulates before they become part of the working atmosphere. Further downstream, separate systems manage fumes generated in the gold room. Manufacture of the reclaim-tunnel package was complete by February 2026, months before the same area moved towards dry commissioning. It is a good illustration of how specialist engineering packages assembled off site gradually become part of the reliability, safety and environmental performance of the finished mine. Rockledge East Africa has solved a different problem: getting critical equipment to Nyanzaga
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in the first place. Its marine-warranty and cargo-risk work has covered the movement of high-value equipment through East Africa, including discharge at Mombasa, inland transport and roll-on/rolloff barge movements across Lake Victoria. Surveyors have overseen lifting, securing and lashing, transportation risk, barge loading, stability and offloading. For a mining company, that work protects more than cargo. Major equipment can carry long manufacturing lead times, and damage in transit can affect installation sequences and ultimately commissioning dates. Moving the equipment safely therefore becomes part of schedule protection. Materials handling provides another link in the chain. Rulmeca Melco Conveyor Equipment brings specialist conveyor technology into a plant where bulk material must move consistently between crushing, stockpiling, reclaim and grinding. Conveyor availability directly affects the ability of the larger process equipment to
SOTTA MINING CORPORATION LIMITED operate continuously, making the materialshandling system part of plant reliability rather than a peripheral service. Nyanzaga’s civil and mining work has also created a role for Tanzanian and regional contractors. Advent Construction Limited is participating in the project’s civil construction programme, while Kitilu Engineering Works and Consultancy Company Limited has provided specialist engineering capability associated with geotechnical work and settlement analysis.
Epiroc Tanzania supports the wider mining and rock-excavation environment as the project moves from mine development into sustained production. Together, those roles show the range of capabilities required to deliver a modern gold operation: major OEM equipment, engineering continuity, emissions control, logistics assurance, civil work, mining technology and the smaller systems that keep tonnes moving reliably through the plant.
“The individual structures that dominated the construction programme now have to begin functioning as one plant.”
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completion is important; bringing the remaining systems into operation without losing schedule, safety or plant reliability is what turns capital into production. Nyanzaga passed another significant measure during that build. By late September, the project had recorded more than 10 million working hours without a lost-time injury across a site combining mining, concrete works, electrical installation, mechanical construction, heavy lifting and commissioning preparation.
Building a Tanzanian workforce
Infrastructure coming together
The process plant sits inside a much wider operating system. Nyanzaga requires a new 220 kV electricity connection supported by substations, internal distribution and emergency generation. Water infrastructure is being developed alongside it, while the tailings storage facility has advanced through embankment construction, basin preparation and liner installation. Each element has its own construction programme, but commissioning binds them together. The grinding circuit requires dependable electricity and water. The carbon-in-leach circuit depends on correctly prepared feed from the mills. The tailings facility must be ready when the plant begins producing residue. Workshops, warehouses, controls and maintenance systems have to support all of them. For mining executives and investors, this convergence is one of the clearest measures of project execution. Reaching 80 per cent
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The scale of the people behind that achievement is substantial. Cavedon’s September update put the workforce above 4,000 people. Earlier, Perseus reported that in June more than 3,600 people were working at Nyanzaga, including 281 direct employees compared with around 40 two years earlier. The company said the vast majority were Tanzanian nationals, including people from host communities. International Facilities Services Tanzania supports that workforce through catering and facilities management, preparing more than 2,000 meals each day for the Sotta Mining operation. The human requirement is now beginning to change with the project itself. Construction has demanded large civil, structural and installation teams. Operations will rely increasingly on plant operators, electricians, instrumentation technicians , mechanical maintainers , metallurgists, geologists and process specialists. Speaking at Mining Forum Americas in September, CEO Craig Jones described Perseus’s approach to bringing people into the industry without necessarily requiring previous mining experience and developing their capabilities through training. At Nyanzaga, Perseus is working with the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology and ECG Tanzania on an electrical and instrumentation programme targeting approximately 103 trainees, with at least 50 per cent female participation. The
SOTTA MINING CORPORATION LIMITED
“Nyanzaga depends on specialist companies working between and around the major pieces of equipment that define the flowsheet.” company says the first trainees have already started gaining practical experience on site. Over the preceding year, Perseus reported 202 training opportunities across Nyanzaga, covering areas including health and safety, IT, security and human rights. That investment has relevance beyond the mine. Technical skills developed around electrical systems, instrumentation and process control can move across mining, power, water, manufacturing and other industries. For Tanzania, the longer-term value lies in converting
a temporary construction peak into a deeper pool of industrial capability.
Keeping more value in Tanzania
The clearest measure of Nyanzaga’s local economic impact is procurement. Between July 2024 and March 2026, Perseus says approximately TZS371 billion — around US$146 million — of Nyanzaga procurement went to local suppliers. That represented 70 per cent of total project procurement during the period. The company also reported more than TZS457
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billion, or approximately US$180 million, in economic value distributed across Tanzania to that point. Tanzanian contractors accounted for more than 85 per cent of the people working at Nyanzaga. Those figures shift the local-content discussion away from intention and towards scale. Engineering, construction, transport, equipment supply, power and services are already supporting Tanzanian businesses before commercial production begins. The next test will be durability. Construction creates intense but temporary demand for concrete, earthworks, structural steel, accommodation and installation. An operating mine purchases different things repeatedly: maintenance services, tyres, fuel, laboratory work, catering, security, reagents, process consumables, equipment servicing and technical support. Perseus is already advertising operational procurement opportunities for Nyanzaga,
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including refining services and consumables for the electrowinning and gold-recovery circuits. For local businesses, the strongest legacy of the construction programme may be the opportunity to turn a project contract into a 10- or 15-year operating relationship.
Homes, schools and livelihoods
The communities around Nyanzaga have experienced the development from another perspective. Farming has traditionally provided an important source of food and income in the project area, alongside artisanal mining, fishing, livestock and small-scale trade. Developing the mine required land acquisition and a formal resettlement programme. Nyanzaga’s Resettlement Action Plan identified 856 Project Affected Persons, while Perseus planned 262 replacement houses and now reports that the housing programme has been completed.
SOTTA MINING CORPORATION LIMITED Community infrastructure has developed alongside the new homes. Schools at Sotta East and Sotta West were commissioned during 2026, while the wider programme includes a dispensary, granary, village office and church. One of the more tangible local employment initiatives came directly from the construction programme. Perseus established an on-site brick-making facility using materials sourced around Nyanzaga, creating 50 jobs for villagers. The plant was designed to produce more than 1.5 million bricks for project buildings and accommodation at around 4,000 bricks per day.
Workers received training in brick production, and Perseus says the equipment will be donated to the community once the construction programme no longer requires it. The initiative captures a useful measure of community investment: the immediate project receives the bricks it needs, while people leave with equipment and skills that can support economic activity after the construction demand disappears. Livelihood restoration will be measured over a longer period. As relocated households settle into new communities, the question becomes
“The immediate output was bricks for Nyanzaga; the longer opportunity is the skills, equipment and economic activity left behind.”
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whether compensation, housing and economicsupport programmes allow families to establish sustainable sources of income around the new mine. That matters to the operation as much as the infrastructure inside its fence. A mine designed to run for around 16 years needs community relationships capable of lasting just as long.
A new position in the Lake Victoria Goldfields
Nyanzaga also gives Perseus a strategic position beyond the mine currently under construction.
The project’s 4.109-million-ounce Ore Reserve is now the largest single component of the company’s reserve base, while the wider Mineral Resource contains additional ounces outside the current reserve. Perseus also holds exploration ground around the principal deposits. Once the company has established a fivemillion-tonne-per-year processing plant, power, water, laboratories, workshops and an operating organisation in this part of Tanzania, the economics of future discoveries nearby begin to change. Satellite deposits may potentially benefit from infrastructure that has already been
“After first gold, performance will be measured in throughput, recovery, production, local employment, procurement and livelihoods.”
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SOTTA MINING CORPORATION LIMITED
paid for, subject to future drilling and economic assessment. That gives Nyanzaga significance beyond its initial 16-year plan. It provides Perseus with an operating platform in the Lake Victoria Goldfields from which further exploration, resource conversion and future regional opportunities can be assessed.
The first operating tests
Perseus is targeting January 2027 for first gold. Reaching that milestone will demonstrate that ore can move successfully from mining through crushing, grinding, recovery and the gold room. The more demanding evidence will come during ramp-up. The plant will need to progress towards five million tonnes of annual throughput, sustain gold production above 200,000 ounces through most of the planned mine life, reconcile mined grades against the geological model and deliver metallurgical recovery and operating costs
consistent with the investment case. The human and economic measures will develop alongside those operating numbers: how many Tanzanian workers move from construction into permanent roles, how many trainees establish technical careers, how much recurring procurement remains with Tanzanian businesses and whether households affected by the development establish sustainable livelihoods around the new mine.
SOTTA MINING CORPORATION LIMITED / NYANZAGA GOLD PROJECT - Plot 114, Block W, Capri Point Area P.O. Box 434 Mwanza, Tanzania
+255 758 904 888
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Sotta Mining Corporation Limited / Nyanzaga Gold Project - Plot 114, Block W, Capri Point Area P.O. Box 434 Mwanza, Tanzania
+255 758 904 888
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