"The Board believes Gold Fields presents a compelling long-term investment opportunity for current and future investors. It offers near-term growth alongside a strong pipeline of development and exploration projects that we believe will deliver sustainable returns for the decade and beyond."
Dear stakeholders
During 2024, the Board continued to provide oversight over delivery of the Company's strategy, which has three priorities: to deliver safe, reliable production; deliver positive social and environmental impact; and improve the value and quality of the Gold Fields portfolio.
Tragically, we were once again not able to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities. We recorded one non-operational and two operational fatalities, Khathutshelo Khaukanani from South Deep and Eli Kelly from St Ives, during the year, and our condolences go out to the families, friends and colleagues of those who passed away. There is now a stronger impetus for improvement, and the Board and management remain deeply committed to delivering on our safety guarantee to our people.
Supported by the Board, the Group's management team initiated a comprehensive, independent review of our safety processes and, subsequently, started implementing a comprehensive safety improvement plan. We are already seeing early results – but, as always, we need to remain vigilant.
Our commitment includes the psychological health and wellbeing of our people, which is key to building safer, more inclusive and respectful workplaces.
The Board is confident that the range of programmes and actions being undertaken to address the concerning findings of the independent culture review conducted by Elizabeth Broderick & Co (EB&Co), concluded in 2023, are making an impact. We will continue monitoring the Group's progress against these commitments.
Responsible mining is fundamental to how Gold Fields does business. As such, we have sought to integrate environmental and social matters into our operational management. Our guiding principles are to create value for our stakeholders, meaningfully invest in our host communities, take care of the environment, and adhere to the highest ethical standards.
We sought to embed these priorities in the Group's strategy because they are key to the sustainability of the business and lead to better outcomes for our stakeholders.
Our investment in renewable energy sources, for example, ensures security of electricity supply to our operations in Australia and South Africa and will lead to lower energy costs in the long term. Similarly, seeking out and retaining a diverse and talented workforce widens the pool from which we can draw the right skills and experience to support our business. Business practice has shown that it also leads to better decision-making, increased innovation and, ultimately, better outcomes for our stakeholders.
At a time when concepts such as ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion are facing scrutiny in certain jurisdictions, the Board and management reaffirm our commitment to these matters.
Turning to the Company's financial and operational performance, regrettably, we had to revise our production and cost guidance twice in 2024, and the market held us accountable for this. While we successfully met our annual revised guidance with an improved production performance in H2 2024, the Board has stressed the imperative that Gold Fields upholds its strong track record of consistently delivering on guidance.
Salares Norte was a particular focus of the Board and management's attention after revising its production forecast multiple times since 2023.
Clearly the adverse weather conditions experienced in northern Chile made the start-up difficult, but we are pleased to see that the ramp-up that commenced in September 2024 is finally on track to deliver steady-state production by Q4 2025 and for the full year in 2026. This will come with costs which should markedly lower the Group average.
Pleasingly, the strong second half performance of the portfolio enabled the Company to generate solid cash-flows and reward shareholders with a record dividend of R10/share.
Looking ahead, the Board believes Gold Fields presents a compelling long-term investment opportunity for current and future investors. It offers near-term growth alongside a strong pipeline of development and exploration projects that we believe will deliver sustainable returns for this decade and beyond.
The Group's multi-decade assets – St Ives, South Deep, Tarkwa and Windfall – have sufficient Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources to underpin production well into the mid-2030s. With Tarkwa's proposed JV with Iduapriem and the Windfall project's pending environmental approval and Board endorsement, all four assets are expected to remain significant contributors to our portfolio for well over a decade.
The newest mine in our portfolio, Salares Norte, has the potential to become a multi-decade asset if ongoing exploration efforts successfully identify additional Mineral Resources to extend its current 11-year LOM. Further growth potential exists at the Windfall project, which was acquired with an extensive exploration portfolio.
Beyond this, the Group's growth strategy is aimed at maintaining a production profile of 2Moz – 3Moz well into the next decade. This will be achieved through a focus on greenfields and brownfields exploration, coupled with bolt-on mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
The acquisition of Osisko Mining during 2024, which consolidated control of the highly prospective Windfall project, and the proposed Tarkwa/Iduapriem JV are examples of the bolt-on merger approach the Board is encouraging to ensure the longer-term growth of the portfolio.
In determining future investments, the Board applies the Gold Fields Capital Allocation Framework, which prioritises maintaining the Company's investment grade credit rating, spending the necessary capital to ensure safe and reliable production, and paying a base dividend. Only after these priorities are met will discretionary growth investments be considered – and even then, these investments will be weighed against offering additional returns to shareholders.
As the Group's strategy, growth and context evolve, it is critical that Gold Fields' leadership, both at Board and at senior management level, reflect these changes.
It is therefore critical that we proactively implement structured succession plans, both at Board and at executive level, to ensure the integration of fresh perspectives and diverse expertise into our leadership structures. In making appointments, the Board also seeks to ensure adequate diversity in race, gender, culture, age, skills, and geographic and academic backgrounds.
During 2024 and in early 2025, the Board revised its committee structures and memberships to oversee and support management in delivering our strategy. In August 2024, we appointed two NEDs, Zarina Bassa and Shannon McCrae, to strengthen the Board's financial, as well as mining and geological, expertise.
Our work continued in 2025, with the February announcement that two long-serving members of the Board, Steven Reid and Peter Bacchus, will retire at the Company's AGM in May 2025. As a result of their retirement, further changes to Board committee memberships are being instituted.
For more information on proposed changes to committee composition effective 28 May 2025, refer to our Governance and Remuneration Report.
Several critical leadership changes also took place at executive level. Notably, on 1 January 2024, Mike Fraser assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), succeeding Martin Preece, who was appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO). On 1 March 2025, Alex Dall was appointed permanent Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and executive director following his tenure as Interim CFO when Paul Schmidt retired in April 2024.
Two other senior executive appointments were also announced during the year, and the Board is confident this leadership team will enable the delivery of leading operational, social and financial results.
The Board also oversaw a critical change in Gold Fields' organisational structure: the transition from a three-layered (Group, regions, operations) structure to a two-layered (Group, operations), functional guidance organisational structure. We believe this change will deliver standardised ways of working and greater agility as the Group portfolio expands into new jurisdictions. It has already enabled stronger functional leadership, guidance and support for our operations, which remain ultimately accountable for safe, cost-effective and sustainable delivery.
The Company's Remuneration Policy, as outlined in the Governance and Remuneration Report, reflects our corporate strategic priorities – in particular, our people policies and approaches.
In conclusion, I would like to express my appreciation to my fellow directors, many of whom have been on the Board with me for several years. Secondly, I want to thank the executive leadership team for keeping the ship steady amid some extensive internal changes and a complex external environment.
Finally, I want to thank the almost 23,000 employees and contractors of Gold Fields for ensuring we continue to create enduring value for all our stakeholders.
Yunus Suleman
Chairperson