Mineral Resources and Reserves summary

Managing our Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves is central to delivering on our strategic goals. The Group continued to focus on near-mine exploration to extend mine life during the year. As in 2022, we were unable to replace all mined Mineral Reserves through exploration and mine extensional drilling. Nevertheless, we added significant Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources to reduce the impact of depletion. Replacing Mineral Reserves through extensional drilling and exploration is a multi-year commitment, and we cannot expect a smooth replacement trajectory. Gold Fields remains committed to a Mineral Reserves replacement programme at its operations.

Cost pressures and mining depletion had a negative impact and overall decline on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves across all operations, except for Granny Smith. Studies are underway to identify how to address this through asset optimisation, project ramp-ups, expansions and increased efficiencies. We continue to plan for exploration and extensional drilling to define additional Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves during 2024. Despite the decrease in Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, we are well placed to deliver on production guidance in the near term.

In 2023, our Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves pricing assumptions for gold were US$1,600/oz and US$1,400/oz, respectively. However, we updated exchange rates for the Australian Dollar and South African Rand, with consequent changes in local currency gold prices. Refer to our Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Supplement (the MRMR Supplement) for more details. Due to the timing of the exchange rates changes, we primarily applied the changes in pricing assumptions to financial modelling and not to all aspects of mine planning and optimisation for our Australian operations.

Our sites continue to drive Mineral Resources to Mineral Reserves conversion; strive for Mineral Reserves growth to replace annual depletion; improve cash-flow and cost per ounce; and deliver on strategic opportunities to extend mine life.

2023 performance

The life-of-mine Mineral Reserves incorporate the first two years of the business plan schedule. Our 2023 estimations were brought forward to October 2023 to align with the models used in our business planning cycles. Depletions are based on 11 months of actual depletions (January to November 2023) plus a projection for December 2023. As a result, the 2023 Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves estimation period was shorter than 2022, which was based on a full year of actuals.
This reduced Mineral Reserves replacement between 2022 and 2023.

At end-2023, Group attributable Proved and Probable Mineral Reserves were estimated at 44.6Moz gold (2022: 46.1Moz), 336Mlbs copper (2022: 398Mlbs) and 41.9Moz silver (2022: 42.2Moz). Gold Mineral Reserves decreased by 1.48Moz on an attributable basis net depletion of approximately 2.3Moz. Copper Mineral Reserves decreased by 62Mlbs on an attributable basis net depletion of 80Mlbs. Silver Reserves at Salares Norte in Chile decreased by 0.2Moz.

Attributable Mineral Reserves changes include increases of 0.3Moz (12%) at Granny Smith net of annual depletion, which was offset by Mineral Reserves decreases of 0.2Moz (-9%) at Gruyere, 0.1Moz (-4%) at St Ives, 0.2Moz (-20%) at Agnew, 0.4Moz (-2%) at South Deep, 0.1Moz (-37%) at Damang, 0.5Moz (-10%) at Tarkwa, 0.04Moz (-1%) at Salares Norte and 0.1Moz (-14%) at Cerro Corona, all including annual depletion. Silver Mineral Reserves decreased by 0.2Moz (-1%) at Salares Norte and copper Mineral Reserves decreased by 63Mlb (-16%) at Cerro Corona.

Group attributable Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources EMR amounted to 30.3Moz gold (2022: 31.1Moz), 0.0Mlbs copper (2022: 300.0Mlbs) and 2.2Moz silver (2022: 2.5Moz). The reduction in copper Mineral Resources EMR is the result of sterilisation of Mineral Resources at Cerro Corona due to planned placement of in-pit tailings. Group attributable Inferred Mineral Resources EMR were 10.2Moz gold (2022: 11.2Moz), 0.0Mlbs copper (2022: 1.1Mlbs) and 0.1Moz silver (2022: 0.5Moz).

Measured and Indicated attributable Mineral Resources EMR gold changes during 2023 include increases of 0.3Moz (16%) at Granny Smith and 0.7Moz (26%) at Tarkwa. This was offset by decreases of 0.1Moz (-9%) at Gruyere, 0.2Moz (-1%) at South Deep, and 0.9Moz (-30%) at Damang. Similar to copper, no Mineral Resources EMR gold was reported at Cerro Corona in 2023 as a result of planned placement of in-pit tailings. Silver EMR decreased by 0.3Moz (-12%) at Salares Norte and copper decreased by 300Mlbs (100%) at Cerro Corona.

Gold Inferred Mineral Resources EMR decreased by 0.1Moz (-13%) at Gruyere, 0.2Moz (-15%) at Granny Smith, 0.4Moz (-28%) at St Ives, 0.1Moz (-29%) at Tarkwa. Silver decreased by 0.4Moz (-84%) at Salares Norte and copper decreased by 1Mlbs (100%) at Cerro Corona.

The decreases in Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves were primarily due to depletion and increased cut-off grades from mining inflation, only partly offset by additions from exploration. Depletions from Mineral Resources can occur due to mining of mineralised material not in reserve, which may be opportunistic, incrementally costed or part of the business plan guided by grade-control drilling completed during the year.

In 2023, Gold Fields entered into an agreement to sell its direct interest in the Asanko gold mine in Ghana to Galiano Gold for US$170m, plus a 1% net smelter royalty on future production from the Nkran deposit, capped at a volume of 447koz. The sale was finalised in March 2024. No Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves are reported for Asanko. This is consistent with previous years, as the Asanko Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves were not considered material.

During the year, we entered into a JV with Osisko Mining to form the 50/50 Windfall project. The project’s EIA has not yet been approved, and no decision has been made to start development. No Mineral Resources or Mineral Reserves are disclosed for 2023.

Governance

The consolidated summary of Gold Fields’ Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves in this section should be read with our MRMR Supplement and Form 20-F, available on our website. The MRMR Supplement details important technical information on our Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves at year-end. It is prepared in line with the South African Code for the Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, 2016 edition and other leading standards and regulations, including the US SEC’s SK-1300. Supplementary information is available in the Technical Report Summaries filed as exhibits to our Form 20-F. While there are some differences in the formatting of the documents due to different reporting guidelines, they are nevertheless substantially similar.

The Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources statements were prepared under the supervision of the Group Competent Persons, Julian Verbeek and Jason Sander, who are members of Gold Fields’ Corporate Technical Services team. They both consent to the disclosure of these statements in the form they are presented. Details of experience and affiliation are provided in the MRMR Supplement.