Vision of the Chairperson

Many of our stakeholders, particularly investors, still see Gold Fields as a South African mining company, with much of its fortunes inextricably linked to the country's current and future mining landscape, as well as the short-term performance and outlook for South Deep, our sole remaining mine in the country. We are a proudly South African company with a history going back to 1887 and remain deeply committed to the country despite the political and economic uncertainties currently besetting it. While South Deep is a key component of our portfolio, I continue to stress that Gold Fields is a global gold mining company with a portfolio of assets spread across three continents.

Not only are our production and cash-flow already heavily weighted towards our mines in Australia, Peru and Ghana, we have increased our investment in these countries to enhance sustainability of our business:

• Our combined US$502m investment over the past two years in the Damang mine in Ghana and the Gruyere project in Australia is set to bear fruit in 2019, with the potential to further boost our production and profitability in these regions
• During 2018, we acquired a 45% stake in the highly prospective Asanko gold mine (AGM) in Ghana, further raising our profile in a jurisdiction in which we have operated for 25 years
• We expect the production of our portfolio in Australia, Ghana and Peru to approach 2Moz during 2019. Based upon our attributable gold-equivalent Mineral Reserves of over 20Moz in these regions, our track record of resource conversion and exploration activity, we believe that our global portfolio outside of South Africa will be able to maintain a similar production level over the medium to longer term (at the current gold price)
• We have successfully completed a feasibility study for the Salares Norte project in Chile and declared a maiden Mineral Reserve. While we await the outcome of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), expected in early 2020, we have also asked management to develop a funding plan for the project
• We have extended the life of our Cerro Corona mine in Peru to 2030 and are working on a scoping study with the aim of extending it further to 2040
• Our substantial investments in near-mine exploration at our Australian mines continued to yield good results, with the mines not only making up annual depletion but adding net Mineral Reserves over the past four years
• Until two years ago, just over 70% of our Reserves were held by South Deep. That profile has changed: at end 2018, 59% of the Group's attributable Mineral Reserves were at the mine

I believe that these developments clearly underscore Gold Fields' strong and sustainable global profile.

Turning to South Deep, I fully appreciate the frustration experienced by our shareholders over the past few years. We failed to deliver the rebase plan in 2018, as it became evident that South Deep would not achieve the targets set out in the plan and continued to experience cash losses that averaged R100m (US$8m) a month.

With the full backing of the Board, the mine embarked on a fundamental restructuring in Q3 2018, which saw management close loss-making areas, reduce the cost base and embark on a section 189 retrenchment process. Unfortunately, this meant that we had to retrench just over 1,500 employees and contractors, despite the strong opposition by the unions, which led to a 45-day strike. We could not yield to the demands of the unions to reverse the retrenchments, as this would have put the sustainability of South Deep, and the remaining 3,500 jobs, at risk.

I believe that the restructuring, the most comprehensive in South Deep's history, will achieve a significant reduction in the cash losses this year and set the mine up for long-term and sustainable growth. However, the Board has also mandated management to investigate alternative options should it fail to deliver its key targets over the next year.

Gold Fields' mines performed well against a background of a volatile gold price and heavy investment in growth projects during 2018. All mines, except South Deep, met, or improved on, their production and cost guidance and generated sufficient cash to fund the bulk of the investment spend and pay a modest dividend to shareholders. We had to increase our debt to pay for the acquisition of Asanko Gold but, notwithstanding this, our balance sheet remained in good health.

Not only has the cash generated by our mines enabled us to invest in future growth, but also to create significant value for our key stakeholders. During 2018, Gold Fields' total value distribution to our stakeholders was US$2.7bn in the form of payments to governments, capital providers, business suppliers and our workforce.

A particular focus in 2018 was strengthening our relations with host communities, whose partnership is critical in sustaining our mines. We have asked management to focus on host community employment and procurement, to improve the economic wellbeing of these communities. During 2018, almost a quarter of our total value creation, almost US$700m, remained in our host communities through focused job creation and procurement.

Stakeholder engagement and relations remain a critical issue for the Board. As a foundation, we want to develop honest, mutually beneficial partnerships with these stakeholders and, by and large, have found ways to achieve this. In return though, we would expect governments and trade unions, in particular, to work with us to ensure that our mines can continue to operate sustainably.

During 2018, the major trade unions at our Ghanaian and South African operations resisted the restructurings we believed were essential to ensure the longevity and profitability of our Tarkwa and South Deep mines. While we eventually implemented contractor mining at Tarkwa and retrenchments at South Deep, we need to re-establish common ground with our union partners.

Resource nationalism is growing in many major mining jurisdictions. This presents a significant challenge for Gold Fields as we seek to expand our operations in some of these jurisdictions. In South Africa, a new Mining Charter was finally agreed in mid-2018. It is a significant improvement on previous iterations. There are, however, critical areas with which Gold Fields and the industry has deep concerns, namely that the Charter does not fully recognise the black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership credentials of previous BEE transactions. This is the case in respect of mining right renewals and transfers of these rights. To be frank, this is a non-negotiable for the mining sector and will require more engagement between the Minerals Council of South Africa and the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). The 2018 Charter will also require significant investment in employment equity, procurement and enterprise development, and human resource development.

The mining regimes in Peru, Ghana and Australia remain largely stable. Overall though, we would welcome a more proactive approach by governments, such as the one adopted by the Ghanaian government - which has entered into development agreements (DAs) with large mining companies that actively encourage investments.

Most importantly, the Board shares management's commitment to eliminate all fatalities and serious injuries. It is therefore a major disappointment that we experienced a fatality during 2018. I want to express my sincerest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Ananias Mosololi, a load haul dump truck operator at South Deep.

Gold Fields continues to show significant progress in improving our safety performance and management practices. During 2018, the fatality rate, the benchmark total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) and the total number of recordable injuries continued their overall improvements of the past few years. At 1.83 incidents per million hours worked, the Gold Fields 2018 TRIFR has improved by 55% since 2014.

On the health front, the Occupational Lung Disease Working Group, representing the majority of gold mining companies in South Africa, including Gold Fields, reached a historic settlement with attorneys representing ex-mineworkers suffering from silicosis and tuberculosis (TB). The settlement, once approved by the courts, is set to see R5bn (US$380m) dedicated to compensating ex-mine workers.

Appreciation

As directors of this Company, one of our key responsibilities is to ensure that the global corporate governance programmes at Gold Fields are in line with the ever-changing and more stringent standards expected from multinational companies. I take enormous comfort in the fact that our Board of Directors comprises a team of dedicated and able men and women whose experience, knowledge and commitment makes my task as Chairperson so much easier.

The composition of this team was strengthened during 2018 with the addition of Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa to the Board. Phuti took over from Don Ncube, who was on Gold Fields' Board for over 11 years. Don left a considerable mark at Gold Fields in terms of the transformation of the Company, improved relationships with our host communities and, most recently, as Chairperson of the Social, Ethics and Transformation (SET) Committee. His experience, counsel, humour and friendship will be missed.

Gold Fields had to contend with difficult economic and operational circumstances during 2018. The continued operational, financial and sustainability progress made by the Company in these conditions is a credit to the hard work and dedication of its employees, led by CEO Nick Holland and his executive management team. On behalf of the Board, I would like to express my gratitude to Nick and his team around the globe and wish them strength for their endeavours in the year ahead.

Cheryl Carolus

Chairperson