Sustainability 
Communities
Our host communities are key stakeholders as their support underpins our social licence to operate which, in turn, impacts our ability to create enduring value. We aim to consistently deliver on our sustainability commitments and earn the trust of our host communities through purpose-led social impact and nature-positive performance that seeks to enhance lives.
These communities include individuals living near our operations who are or could be affected by our exploration, construction, operational or divestment activities. Each Group operation identifies its host communities to secure its legal and social licence to operate. An estimated 800,000 people live in approximately 60 communities surrounding our nine mines.
We strive to continuously improve our social performance, recognising that empowered host communities contribute to the resilience and success of themselves and our business. While financial and other assistance are provided where appropriate, we believe the most sustainable benefit we can deliver is empowering our host communities to achieve long-term social, economic and environmental resilience. To this end, we prioritise host community procurement, job creation and SED investment, while striving to avoid or minimise adverse impacts.
Our Host Community Value Creation Strategy is instrumental in ensuring we maintain our social licence to operate. The strategy guides our social performance and distinguishes between the following host community value creation levers:
We also apply a community relations standard and provide guidelines on managing material social impacts and risks, including illegal mining and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Our Group Community Policy Statement underscores our commitment to cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with our host communities, host governments and other key stakeholders through meaningful and transparent engagement. Our Group Community and Government Charter promotes trust-building, value creation, impact measurement and accountability. In line with the Charter’s commitments, our operations update and implement government and community action plans annually.
Our community relations programmes depend on ongoing stakeholder engagement and grievance management. All our operations have stakeholder engagement plans and grievance mechanisms to address and resolve grievances effectively.
For more details, refer to our 2024
ESG databook.
(35%RA of national value distribution of US$3.73bn. National value distribution breakdown is provided on Our stakeholders)
| 1 | In Ghana |
National value distribution equals total value distribution less payments to capital providers. See Our stakeholders for total value distribution
We seek to continually enhance our understanding of the value we create and impact we have on our host communities by measuring the impact of our procurement, employment and SED investment. We created between US$677m and US$1.27bn in community value annually for the past seven years. This amounts to over US$6.3bn – a sustained and significant investment in the economic wellbeing of our host communities.
One of our sustainability commitments is to share 30% of the value we distribute with our host communities by 2030. In 2024, 35%RA (US$1.27bnRA) of the US$4.2bnRA of national value the Group distributed remained with our host communities (2023: 33% (US$1.09bn) of US$3.29bn).
See Chief Executive Officer's report for
more on our 2030 ESG targets and the mid-term review planned for
2025.
As part of our commitment to enhancing transparency in responsible mining practices, we began reporting on seven of the ICMM's Social and Economic Reporting Framework (SERF) indicators in 2023. The framework's eight core indicators of social and economic contribution set a benchmark for the mining sector. Our ESG databook provides detailed disclosures on our performance against the SERF indicators during the year. Where relevant, SERF indicator alignment is also referenced in this report.
For more details on our SERF disclosures, refer to our Report to Stakeholders and our
2024
ESG databook.
Host community procurement creates community jobs and supplier opportunities
Host community employment maximises local opportunities
Community investment drives integrated development
2030 ESG target: six new legacy programmes
Legacy programmes create community and environmental resilience beyond the LOM
Host community procurement
Guided by our Host Community Procurement Strategy, we seek opportunities for community-based enterprises to participate in our supply chains. When implemented effectively, this approach benefits the communities in which we operate and enhances the resilience and sustainability of our mines. Our drive to procure from host communities aims to support economic development, community relations and capacity building, with the added benefit of decreasing our environmental impact by reducing long-distance transport.
In 2024, our total procurement spend amounted to US$2.8bn, 97% of which was spent on businesses based in the countries where we operate (2023: US$2.5bn/97%). We spent US$1.12bnRA (41%RA) of our total procurement spend with host community suppliers and contractors (2023: US$941m/37%). This exceeds our annual target of 29% and serves as a key driver in achieving our 2030 ESG target of distributing 30% of our value to host communities. Australia and Ghana continue to exceed annual host community procurement targets. The Group has 794 active host community suppliers, and we engaged with them during the year on topics including management and strategic support.
Refer to Building a safe and
respectful workplace for our work to integrate our business partners into our business and
ensure alignment with Gold Fields' vision, values and safety standards.
Host community SMEs are crucial partners, supplying key products and services while creating jobs in our host communities and countries. Supporting them is critical to achieving our 2030 host community value creation target. We continued rolling out preferential payment terms for host community SMEs, particularly those led by minority and disadvantaged groups. These improved terms support healthy cash-flow for SME suppliers.
| Local (in-country) procurement |
Local (in-country) procurement (% of total) |
Host community procurement |
Host community procurement (% of total) |
|||||
Country |
2024(US$m) | 2023(US$m) | 2024 | 2023 | 2024(US$m) | 2023(US$m) | 2024 | 2023 |
| Australia | 1,445 | 1,212 | 99% | 99% | 393 | 349 | 29% | 30% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa | 288 | 249 | 100% | 100% | 80 | 58 | 28% | 23% |
| Ghana | 832 | 841 | 94% | 93% | 621 | 503 | 71% | 56% |
| Peru | 210 | 234 | 96% | 96% | 27 | 31 | 12% | 13% |
| Group | 2,765 | 2,537 | 97% | 97% | 1,121RA | 941 | 41%RA | 37% |
| 1 | Host community data excludes our corporate and regional offices, as well as operations in Chile and Canada |
Host community employment
We prioritise employing host community members at our operations and encourage our suppliers to do the same. We support this with training, education and skills development initiatives to improve our host communities’ skills base.
At the end of 2024, 52%RA of our workforce – or 9,697RA people – were employed from our host communities (2023: 51%/8,834 people). We aim to maintain and increase current levels of host community employment. These jobs have significant multiplier effects, particularly in developing countries, and are critical for the residents of our host communities.
Beyond creating employment opportunities at our operations or with our suppliers – where we have limited scope to create jobs – we also seek to create non-mining jobs, particularly linked to SED projects, legacy programmes and the wider supply chain. Non-mining jobs can continue to provide benefits to host communities during and beyond the lives of our operations.
During the year, we created 858 non-mining jobs (2023: 1,360) through our community investments in South Africa, Ghana and Peru. Due to their inherent nature, many of our SED projects do not necessarily provide long-term solutions but create income and skills development.
The following projects created significant non-mining jobs in 2024:
| Country | Total workforce2 2024 |
% of employees – national |
Host community workforce 2024 |
% of workforce – host community1 |
||
| 2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 | |||
| Australia | 4,340 | 77% | 76% | 546 | 14% | 15% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa | 5,266 | 89%3 | 87% | 3,318 | 63% | 63% |
| Ghana | 7,112 | 100% | 99% | 5,114 | 72% | 69% |
| Peru | 2,116 | 100% | 98% | 719 | 34% | 27% |
| Group | 18,834 | 87% | 87% | 9,697RA | 52%RA | 51% |
| 1 | Host community data excludes our country offices, as well as projects in Chile and Canada |
| 2 | Excludes our corporate office |
| 3 | Most of the remaining employees are Southern African Development Community nationals |
Socio-economic development investment in host communities
We demonstrate our commitment to purpose-led social impact by prioritising SED investment in our host communities beyond procurement and employment. Through targeted initiatives in education, healthcare, infrastructure and economic diversification, we enhance the wellbeing and resilience of our host communities during and beyond the lives of our mines.
We invested US$16.6mRA in SED projects in our host communities in 2024 (2023: US$17m). We have dedicated SED investment funds delivered directly or through our Ghana Foundation and independent trusts in South Africa. Our mines collaborate with host governments, development organisations and NGOs to deliver these programmes.
Significant projects we supported during the year include:
Group SED spend (US$m)1
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| 16.61RA | 17.18 | 21.21 |
|---|
| Group SED by category (2024) (US$m)1 | |
| Infrastructure | 6.85 |
|---|---|
| Education and training | 4.17 |
| Health and wellbeing | 0.89 |
| Economic diversification | 3.51 |
| Conservation and environment | 0.10 |
| Charitable giving | 1.09 |
| Total | 16.61RA |
| 1 | Excludes spending by Salares Norte and Windfall |
Group legacy programmes
Our 2030 sustainability commitments also include developing six legacy programmes. These programmes go beyond SED investment: they aim to create enduring value by addressing our host communities' most pressing development needs while ensuring economic value creation beyond the LOM and outside the mine's supply chain.
The programmes are designed to contribute to the UN SDGs and promote one or several of the following objectives: economic diversification and employment; climate resilience and protection of water and nature; sustainable and profitable agriculture; cultural and heritage preservation; and good health.
Our first legacy programme – developing a sustainable dairy value chain that will benefit small-scale farmers living near Cerro Corona in Peru – continued during the year. Ultimately, the programme aims to build a robust dairy ecosystem that will help producers improve their livelihoods beyond Gold Fields' presence in the area. The next phase will focus on upgrading the plant by complementing, articulating and improving strategic components of the value chain. The plant currently processes 6,000 litres of milk per day in partnership with 200 farmers.
We launched our second legacy programme during the year to improve the quality of life for host communities in Chile's Atacama region. This programme focuses on advancing technical mining education and encouraging local employment. It has already achieved significant milestones, laying a strong foundation to drive long‑term social and economic impact. The third programme, currently being implemented, seeks to improve health outcomes in host communities of our Ghana operations through increased access to affordable and high-quality health services. The legacy programme design in South Africa is currently being finalised.
Managing host community impact and risks
Artisanal, small-scale and illegal mining in Ghana
We aim to engage with the ASM mining community respectfully and transparently, with the goal of creating Shared Value for our stakeholders, securing our operations and maintaining our social licence to operate.
ASM is a significant source of income for communities in resource-rich developing countries, including South Africa, Ghana and Peru, where Gold Fields operates. However, ASM is often associated with illegal mining, which presents related safety, social and environmental impacts. These include potential injuries and loss of life to illegal miners and other stakeholders, loss of ore, potential damage to mine property and operations and mercury and cyanide contamination of water resources. Illegal mining also frequently leads to adverse social impacts on host communities, such as child labour. Our primary concern is the potential social impact of illegal mining, as illegal mining incursions at our operations could lead to violence and injuries to our workforce, host community members and the illegal miners. Such incidents can escalate into wider community unrest.
llegal mining is a particular concern in Ghana, as detailed on the following page. In Peru, Cerro Corona is not directly impacted, but encroachment on legally owned concessions near the mine has led to land disputes and security risks. In South Africa, while South Deep remains unaffected, illegal mining is a growing issue in the broader gold mining sector, especially at closed mines that have attracted illegal miners.
Where illegal mining occurs in the vicinity of our operations, we collaborate with government and its security agencies to uphold the law. Our security workforce is trained to manage illegal mining in line with international security and human rights standards. We also engage with host communities to prevent illegal mining or mitigate its impact. We work with our peers in national and international mining associations to engage governments to advocate for improved ASM sustainability practices and contribute to policy and regulatory development.
Ghana
Illegal mining is a key risk to our operations in Ghana. The Tarkwa-Nsuaem and Prestea-Huni Valley municipalities, which host our Damang and Tarkwa mines, are major centres for legal ASM, as well as small‑scale mining activities carried out by illegal miners, also known as galamsey.
In 2024, illegal mining activities and incidents increased in Ghana, fuelled partly by the high gold price and the national election in December. We continuously review the national context to update our ASM Strategy, while proactively monitoring our sites for illegal mining activities. During 2024, the Damang and Tarkwa mines reported 51 and 41 incursions, respectively – primarily targeting waste dumps and inactive satellite pits and shafts. These incidents resulted in 67 arrests and 14 prosecutions.
The most significant issue relates to an invasion of the Mantraim shaft at our Tarkwa mine by illegal miners. We instituted legal injunctions and proceedings, which are ongoing in the Tarkwa High Court. An encroachment of the Apinto shaft on the edge of the mine also remains unresolved despite legal injunctions.
At the Asanko mine, in which we held a 45% equity stake until 4 March 2024, three people were killed in clashes between illegal miners and Asanko-contracted security teams on 2 March 2024. In early 2025, violence between galamsey and state security personnel contracted by other large-scale gold mining companies in Ghana led to several fatalities.
Our strategy to mitigate risks related to ASM and illegal mining remains effective as we focus on proactive stakeholder engagement and creating value for our host communities. This includes maximising direct and indirect host community employment at our mines, as well as providing youth skills development and alternative livelihoods programmes. When we do implement security measures, these prioritise prevention and are guided by human rights principles, while also actively pursuing amicable resolutions and the promotion of sustainable mining practices.
Respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and First Nations Peoples
Gold Fields recognises that Indigenous Peoples and First Nations Peoples are integral partners in the mining industry and key stakeholders in the social and economic benefits of mining activities. Many of our operations are located on or near territories of significance to Indigenous Peoples and First Nations Peoples, and we acknowledge the impacts of our operations on land, water, biodiversity and other resources valued by these communities. As traditional custodians of these territories, we honour their cultures, traditions, connections to the land and ways of life.
As a member of the ICMM, Gold Fields supports the updated Indigenous Peoples and Mining Position Statement published in 2024. Following its release, we initiated a comprehensive gap analysis in the countries where Indigenous Peoples form part of our host communities (Australia, Chile and Canada). Once this review is complete, we will develop targeted strategies and implementation plans to address identified gaps and enhance our alignment with the updated position statement.
Australia
Our First Nations engagement approach in Australia is built on three strategic pillars:
All our Australian mines are located on lands that are subject to Native Title claims and determinations. Native Title refers to the traditional rights and interests held by a group of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who are formally recognised by the Federal Court of Australia under the Native Title Act of 1993 (Native Title Act).
The table below describes the current claims (active applications that have been accepted for assessment) and determinations (Federal Court decision on the existence of Native Title rights):
| Site | Native Title | Group |
| Gruyere | Entire operation: Determined Native Title | Yilka People and Sullivan families |
| Granny Smith | Entire operation: Determined Native Title | Nyalpa Pirniku People |
| St Ives | Main area of operations: Determined Native Title Remaining area (exploration): Registered Native Title claims |
Determined: Ngadju People | Claim: Marlinyu Ghoorlie People | Claim: Kakarra People |
| Agnew (north) | Determined Native Title | Tjiwarl People |
| Agnew (south) | No active claim or determined Native Title | |
| Agnew (far south) | Determined Native Title | Darlot People |
A key element of our engagement with First Nations stakeholders is our commitment to agreement-making with determined Native Title holders. These agreements foster respectful relationships by establishing clear communication channels, supporting education, employment and contracting opportunities, funding community programmes, promoting cultural awareness and incorporating best practices in environmental and cultural heritage management. They may also include financial benefits that address potential compensation liabilities under the Native Title Act.
At our Gruyere mine, Gold Fields is party to a comprehensive agreement with the determined Native Title holders for the area: the Yilka People and Sullivan families. Through this agreement, we explore ways to sustain and grow employment, business and community development opportunities with the Yilka Talintji Aboriginal Corporation – the Registered Native Title Body Corporate for the group. A joint review of the agreement will be completed in 2025, ensuring the commitments remain mutually agreed and aligned with the priorities and practical needs of both parties.
In August 2024, Gold Fields and the Ngadju Native Title Aboriginal Corporation – representing the Ngadju People, the determined Native Title holders of the land on which St Ives operates – finalised a landmark agreement concerning St Ives. This agreement, the result of two years of negotiations, marks a long-term commitment to mutual respect and collaboration, delivering short and long-term substantial benefits to the Ngadju People, including compensation and royalty payments to acknowledge historic and ongoing mining activities on Ngadju lands.
A key pillar of the agreement is preserving and managing cultural heritage, supported by initiatives aimed at deepening cultural awareness within the St Ives workforce about Ngadju lands and traditions.
Gold Fields has also committed to enhancing educational opportunities for the Ngadju People, including dedicated apprenticeship positions, and prioritising Ngadju businesses in procurement processes. The Ngadju Native Title Aboriginal Corporation will maintain registers of Ngadju candidates and businesses, providing early access to business opportunities within St Ives operations.
We are currently progressing negotiations for similar comprehensive agreements with the Tjiwarl Aboriginal Corporation for Agnew and, in 2025, will commence negotiations with the Nyalpa Pirniku People for our Granny Smith operations.
In 2024, we continued partnering with Reconciliation Australia, a national non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the reconciliation movement in Australia, to advance our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). The Innovate RAP was launched in 2020 and built on the Reflect RAP – the beginning of Gold Fields' commitment to advancing reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and non- Indigenous Peoples. After three years of implementation, Gold Fields will now spend 2025 working with Reconciliation Australia on reviewing our Innovate RAP process internally and commence planning for potential development of a new RAP in 2026.
Chile
While no Indigenous Peoples have a direct relationship with our Salares Norte site, as confirmed through the project's environmental approval process, we have engaged with the Colla Indigenous communities located approximately 70km from the site since 2015.
We have worked to enhance the cultural heritage of these communities by involving Salares Norte's workforce in workshops led by community representatives. These workshops have been instrumental in sharing key aspects of the communities' culture and worldview while establishing behavioural guidelines for Gold Fields workers when interacting with community members. These activities foster mutual respect, strengthen our ties with local communities and contribute to sustainable and inclusive development. We held six workshops during the year, attended by about 120 employees and contractors.
We have a culturally sensitive grievance mechanism in place for host and potentially affected Colla Indigenous communities to submit complaints or raise concerns regarding our activities. We received six complaints from Indigenous communities in 2024, all of which were promptly addressed and resolved.
As part of our commitment to promoting and preserving Indigenous cultural heritage, we codeveloped two books with the Colla Indigenous communities – 400 copies of these books were printed and distributed.
Canada
The Windfall project's host communities include Lebel-sur-Quévillon and the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi. The project is on lands designated to the Cree community, with claims by two other Nations. Collaboration with the Cree community and tallymen, who oversee parts of the property, has been ongoing since inception. A historical agreement with the community guides the project's development. In addition, a Windfall environmental monitoring committee holds monthly meetings to present key site activities.
The project sources key services from community businesses. Since January 2024, an 85km power line, owned and operated by wholly owned companies of the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi, has supplied the project site with hydroelectricity, the sole power source for Windfall. The Windfall Mining Group is working towards entering into an Impact and Benefits Agreement with the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi and the Cree Nation government this year.
In 2024, 21% of the Windfall workforce identified as First Nations Peoples. Cultural initiatives, including a gathering on National Indigenous Peoples' Day, celebrate and preserve Cree traditions. The Cree community also participated in environmental studies, including plant sampling and archaeological digs.
Lebel-sur-Quévillon, historically reliant on forestry, benefits economically through project-driven local business opportunities and employment. A collaboration agreement formalises regular updates with municipal leaders, while Windfall supports social, educational and sports initiatives. Monthly community information tours enhance transparency and address local expectations, covering project updates and environmental studies.
For more details on our engagements with our host communities, refer to our
Report to
Stakeholders.
