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GOLD Fields turned in a vastly improved production report for its third quarter registerting strong recoveries at all its assets, especially at South Deep in South Africa.
The group also announced the resumption of ramp up at its Salares Norte project in Chile. The project is now expected to hit the straps in 2026 but will start to meaningfully contribute to Gold Fields’s production next year with commercial production anticipated in the second quarter.
For Salares Norte in 2024, revised production guidance of 40,000 to 50,000 ounces is expected to be met, the group said.
The only major negative for the quarter was a year-on-year escalation in unit and all-in sustaining costs (AISC), the latter – which came in at $1,694/oz – was 23% higher.
All in all, third quarter production totalled 510,000 oz, a 12% quarter-on-quarter improvement (6% lower y-o-y), and a 5% decrease in all-in sustaining costs which came in at $1,909/oz.
This performance eases the pressure on Mike Fraser, Gold Fields CEO who saw a major drop off in company performance shortly after taking the reins almost a year ago, and at a time when the gold price began its 25% improvement this year.
Fraser promised further gains in the current quarter. “We expect a further step up in production in Q4 2024,” he said in comments to the published numbers. Revised guidance for the year was unchanged at 2.05 to 2.15 million oz at $1,580 to $1,670/oz AISC. This compares to previous guidance of 2.33 to 2.43 million oz at AISC of $1,410 – $1,460/oz.
St Ives, a mine in Australia was set to record the largest quarter-on-quarter increase in the fourth quarter as it accessed new open-pit reserves. But in terms of recovery, Gold Fields gave special mention to South Deep for its performance in the quarter under review.
South Deep has suffered from backfill handling problems and stope availability this year, both of which had been ameliorated in the quarter. Production was 23% higher at 71,700 oz.
Commenting on the outlook for Salares Norte, Fraser said gold equivalent production of between 325,000 to 375,000 oz was expected in 2025 “depending on the ramp-up progress”. If Gold Fields sounds cautious it’s because Salares Norte has fallen well below expectations.
The gold miner roughly halved its 2024 production target for the mine in December to a maximum of 250,000 oz and in May warned of continued difficulties in its ramp up related to the early onset of winter in Chile. The early onset of winter, which froze process pipes, exacerbated the mine’s problems resulting in another production guidance cut from a previously adjusted level of 90,000 oz.
Gold Fields said today that despite snowfall in October ramp up progressed having thawed and cleaned out the process pipes “early in the winter”.
