Independent assurance statement to the board of directors and stakeholders of gold fields limited – south african mining charter

ERM Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd (ERM) was engaged by Gold Fields to provide assurance in relation to selected Mining Charter information set out below and presented in Gold Fields' 2019 Integrated Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2019 ('the Report') for the South Deep Joint Venture.

Engagement summary
Engagement scope (subject matters):		Whether the 2019 data, for the period 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019, for the selected Mining Charter performance indicators listed in Table 2 overleaf, are fairly presented, in all material respects, with the reporting criteria.
Reporting criteria:		Gold Fields Limited South Deep Gold Mine Non-Financial Data Assurance Reporting Guidelines, V5 (January 2020) Gold Fields Limited South Deep Gold Mine Procurement Mining Charter 2018 Reporting Guideline, V0 (November 2019) Broad-Based Socio-Economic Empowerment Charter (BBSEEC) for the South African Mining and Minerals Industry (2018) and the related scorecard (2018) Implementation Guidelines for the BBSEEC for the South African Mining and Minerals Industry (2018)
Assurance standard used:		ERM CVS' assurance methodology based on the International Standard on Assurance Engagements ISAE 3000 (Revised)
Assurance level:		Reasonable assurance for all Subject Matters
Respective responsibilities:		Gold Fields is responsible for preparing the Report, including the collection and presentation of the selected sustainability information within it, in accordance with the reporting criteria, the design, implementation and maintenance of related internal controls, and for the integrity of its website. ERM's responsibility is to provide an opinion on the selected information based on the evidence we have obtained and exercising our professional judgement.

Our assurance activities

We planned and performed our work to obtain all the information and explanations that we believe were necessary to reduce the risk of material misstatement to low and therefore provide a basis for our assurance opinion. A multi-disciplinary team of sustainability, Mining Charter and assurance specialists performed the assurance activities, including, among others:

• Testing the processes and systems, including internal controls, used to generate, consolidate and report the selected Mining Charter information.
• A review of the suitability of the internal Mining Charter reporting guidelines.
• Physical visits to the South Deep Mine, South Africa, to verify source data and other evidence.
• An analytical review of the year-end data submitted by South Deep, including testing of the accuracy and completeness of the consolidated 2019 data for the selected performance indicators.
• A review of the presentation of information relevant to the scope of our work in the Report to ensure consistency with our findings.

Our assurance opinion

In our opinion, the selected Mining Charter performance information set out in Table 2 for the year ended 31 December 2019 is prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the reporting criteria.

Our observations

We have provided Gold Fields with a separate detailed management report. Without affecting the opinion presented above, we have the following observations:

• We recommend giving attention to the consistency of the KPI definitions for the demographic, essential-skills and core skills related indicators, and ensuring these definitions and reporting requirements are aligned to Mining Charter (2018) requirements.
• The site has made considerable effort during the transition period to adapt to the reporting requirements of the Mining Charter (2018), particularly for procurement subject matters.

THE LIMITATIONS OF OUR ENGAGEMENT

The reliability of the assured data is subject to inherent uncertainties given the methods for determining, calculating or estimating the underlying information. It is important to understand our assurance opinions in this context. Our independent assurance statement provides no assurance on the maintenance and integrity of the Gold Fields’ website, including controls used to achieve this integrity, and in particular, whether any changes may have occurred to the information since it was first published.

Donald Gibson Partner	Jennifer Iansen-Rogers Review Partner, ERM CVS, London
27 March 2020

ERM Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg, South Africa

www.erm.com

Email: donald.gibson@erm.com

ERM Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd and ERM Certification and Verification Services (CVS) are members of the ERM Group. Our work complies with the requirements of ERM’s Global Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (available at https://erm.com/global-code). Further, ERM CVS is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service and its operating system is designed to comply with ISO 17021:2011. Our assurance processes are designed and implemented to ensure that the work we undertake with clients is free from bias and conflict of interest (refer to both the above mentioned Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, and the ERM CVS Independence and Impartiality Policy available at http://www.ermcvs.com/our-services/policies/independence/). The ERM and ERM CVS staff that have undertaken work on this assurance engagement provide no consultancy related services to Gold Fields in any respect related to the subject matter assured.