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September 2009 quarter salient features:
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- Attributable gold production at 906,000 ounces was in line with the
previous quarter;
- Total cash cost increased 5 per cent from R140,916 per kilogram
(US$512 per ounce) to R147,343 per kilogram (US$586 per ounce);
- Notional cash expenditure increased 2 per cent from R203,042 per
kilogram (US$738 per ounce) to R207,754 per kilogram (US$826 per
ounce);
- Net debt at R6.7 billion (US$908 million) is robust at 0.58 of annual
EBITDA;
- Post quarter end announcement of 271 million ounces of mineral
resources and 81 million ounces of mineral reserves for F2010;
- Royalty payable by St Ives terminated for a total consideration of
A$308 million;
- Stake in Eldorado sold for US$299 million, following the exchange of
Sino shares for Eldorado shares.
>>
Statement by Nick Holland, Chief Executive Officer of Gold Fields:
"Despite a challenging quarter at Driefontein and Kloof, where safety related interruptions had a material effect on their respective production levels, Gold Fields maintained its production in line with the guidance provided on 6 August 2009, thus demonstrating greater stability and consistency in the production results of the Group.
We are extremely disappointed with the six fatalities during the quarter, and have again redoubled our efforts to reinforce the commitment of every person in Gold Fields to operate safely. Safety is our number one value and we remain committed not to mine if we cannot mine safely, and to improve even further on the record safety year that we had during F2009.
Particularly pleasing during the past quarter has been the outstanding performances from Cerro Corona, Beatrix and South Deep, all of which exceeded their guidance, and Tarkwa which came in on guidance. Consistent performances were also delivered from Agnew and Damang.
In the South Africa Region, Beatrix continued to build on the turn around that it started during the previous quarter by again increasing its production by 7 per cent. South Deep also had a very encouraging quarter, continuing the build-up to its 300koz target for F2010, by improving its production by 26 per cent. Driefontein and Kloof, by contrast, both had very difficult quarters after a slow start-up caused by the spill-over effects of safety stoppages late in the June quarter. As development and flexibility improves over the next 12 to 24 months we expect these mines to improve their performance. We believe that both Driefontein and Kloof can and should do better, and the focus remains on returning these operations to a production level of approximately 209koz of gold per quarter for Driefontein and 177koz for Kloof.
St Ives had a disappointing quarter, its production being 9 per cent below the previous quarter. This was mainly as a result of the rehabilitation work in a high grade area of the Belleisle underground mine taking longer than expected due to safety concerns. We look forward to a stronger performance from St Ives over the next quarterly period. Agnew had a satisfactory quarter with production levels similar to the previous quarter.
With the Tarkwa CIL plant now having stabilised at its nameplate capacity of more than a million tons milled per month, the West Africa Region is well positioned. Tarkwa is now capable of producing between 190koz and 200koz per quarter and we hope to see a strong movement towards this range during the December quarter. This is, however, subject to resolution of the current industrial relations situation affecting the gold sector in Ghana, which continues to be tense following protracted wage negotiations which, at the time of writing, are not close to resolution.
The Group has achieved a solid cost performance during the first quarter. Despite the Rand exchange rate of R7.82 against the US Dollar being about two per cent stronger than the rate of R8.00 used in our guidance for the quarter, our cash costs came in on guidance at US$586/oz and our NCE slightly better than guidance at US$826/oz.
We look forward to further improvements in our performance during the December quarter and our aim is to increase production to approximately 925,000 ounces in this next quarter."
The full results are available on the Gold Fields website: http://www.goldfields.co.za
About Gold Fields
Gold Fields is one of the world's largest unhedged producers of gold with attributable production of 3.6 million ounces* per annum from nine operating mines in South Africa, Ghana, Australia and Peru. Gold Fields also has an extensive growth pipeline with both greenfields and near mine exploration projects at various stages of development. Gold Fields has total attributable Mineral Reserves of 81 million ounces and Mineral Resources of 271 million ounces. Gold Fields is listed on JSE Limited (primary listing), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), the Euronext in Brussels (NYX) and the Swiss Exchange (SWX).
For more information please visit the Gold Fields website at http://www.goldfields.co.za.
*Based on the annualised run rate for the fourth quarter of F2009
SOURCE: Gold Fields Limited
Willie Jacobsz, Mobile: (857) 241-7127; Nikki Catrakilis-Wagner, Mobile: +27(0)83-309-6720
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