"Gold Fields offers a unique value proposition. With our quality portfolio, capable leadership team and dedication of the people that work at and with Gold Fields, we will continue building a business that is resilient, offers a compelling value proposition for our shareholders and delivers on our purpose."
Dear stakeholders
2024 was a year of two different halves, with the first half characterised by safety and operational challenges, as well as severe weather events impacting some of our mines – resulting in a number of disappointing outcomes.
There could not have been a more sobering start to my tenure as CEO than the fatal incident that occurred at our South Deep mine in South Africa on 2 January 2024 and a second fatality at St Ives in Western Australia on 23 April 2024.
On behalf of the Company, I want to again extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of Khathutshelo Khaukanani and Eli Kelly. Following these tragic incidents, we responded by reviewing our safety culture and safety systems and developed a multi-year safety improvement plan to deliver a step change in our safety performance.
For a detailed discussion of Our safety performance and improvement plan.
The diagram below outlines the key pillars of our strategy and the execution thereof, as well as the link to our 2035 aspirations.
After we twice revised production and cost guidance lower, the
performance of our mines improved markedly during H2 2024,
delivering safe, reliable and
cost-effective results in line with our
revised annual production and cost guidance.
Further boosted by the tailwind of the record gold price, our financial performance improved markedly, including a 42% increase in headline earnings to US$1,188m (2023: US$837m) and adjusted FCF of US$605m, up 65% for the year.
We paid a record R10/share total dividend for 2024, representing a 40% payout of normalised profit, as we sought to offer competitive returns while concurrently investing in our portfolio.
During the year, we continued to set the foundations to enable delivery of our strategy, which comprise the following three pillars:
Having made key management appointments during 2024 and early in 2025 – including appointing Alex Dall as our permanent CFO – we now have a global executive team with the necessary skills and depth of experience to deliver our strategy.
During the year, we made a change to our operating model, moving from a three-layered (Group, regions, operations) structure to a simpler, two-layered (Group, operations), functional guidance structure. We believe this structure is the appropriate one for Gold Fields to enable a more effective delivery of our strategy. We also continued evolving the Group's culture by investing in leadership alignment and capability building.
The operational momentum achieved during H2 2024 continued into early 2025, positioning Gold Fields to continue creating value for all our stakeholders in the near and longer term.
Gold Fields has a portfolio of quality assets anchored by four multi-decade operations: St Ives, South Deep and Tarkwa, as well as the Windfall project. We expect these operations to provide the Group's production baseload for many years to come.
Although having shorter life based on current known Mineral Reserves, four of our operations – Gruyere, Granny Smith, Agnew and Salares Norte – offer upside optionality with exploration and technical studies under way to unlock their full potential.
Our Company offers compelling near-term growth and an attractive pipeline of development and exploration projects. We expect to create additional value in 2025 as Salares Norte ramps-up and the Windfall project progresses to final investment decision.
Salares Norte's production will come at an AIC and AISC that are materially lower than the Group average, which will drive an increase in profitability and FCF per share and, ultimately, increase shareholder returns.
Windfall's production – expected from 2028 onwards – is expected to further improve the quality of our portfolio and our position on the industry cost curve.
Concurrently, as part of our asset optimisation programme, we are undertaking extensive work to optimise efficiencies and improve costs at our operations. We completed full potential assessments for our three multi-decade mines, and will prioritise improvement opportunities through production and cost efficiencies and investing in new technologies.
Guaranteeing that all our people go home safe and well every day is our number one value and is the most important thing we do. During the year, dss+ conducted an independent review of our safety culture, systems and practices. The review identified many good practices within the Group, including pockets of excellence that we are seeking to leverage across our operations. However, the review also highlighted areas where improvement is required.
Based on these insights, we developed and started implementing our multi-year safety improvement plan, which includes building capability through our leaders; improving safety and risk systems; and collaborating with our business partners to deliver a fatality and serious injury-free business.
Fostering respectful and inclusive workplaces is fundamental to our culture and essential to delivering on our safety guarantee. We continued making good progress in implementing the recommendations from EB&Co's 2023 culture review, but we acknowledge that more work must be done to ensure the behaviours of respect and inclusion are truly embedded in our business.
I absolutely believe that a fatality-free mining business is possible. Through well-designed and planned work executed by competent people, and by adopting a culture of care and accountability, we can deliver on our guarantee that everyone who works at Gold Fields goes home safe and healthy, every day.
Amid the operational challenges and weather-related events at Gruyere, South Deep, Salares Norte and Cerro Corona, the Group's 2024 attributable gold-equivalent production was 10% lower at 2.071Moz (2023: 2.304Moz, including Asanko). The step-up in performance in H2 2024 increased production by 26% from H1 2024. AISC decreased by 12% lower from H1 2024 to H2 2024.
South Deep, in particular, had a much stronger second half as the team addressed the lower stope availability due to backfill leakage, rehandling issues experienced in H1 2024 and transitioned into higher-grade areas. St Ives also recorded material improvement in H2 2024, with production up 38% due to planned increases in volumes at Invincible Underground and contribution from the Swiftsure and Invincible Footwall South open pits.
Group AIC increased by 24% to US$1,873/oz and AISC by 26% to US$1,629/oz, mainly due to lower production. The average gold price received during 2024 improved by 25% to US$2,418/oz, boosting adjusted FCF by 65% to US$605m in 2024 from US$367m in 2023.
During the year, net debt increased by US$1,062m to US$2,086m, driven largely by the US$1,450m paid to acquire Osisko Mining in October 2024. However, our net debt:adjusted EBITDA ratio of 0.73x at end-2024 (2023: 0.42x) is still well within the 1.0x we previously stated as our target level through the cycle.
Momentum gained during H2 2024 continued into 2025. We are planning higher production in 2025, with a corresponding reduction in AISC and AIC. Our teams understand the importance of delivering our 2025 guidance and will continue to focus on ensuring each operation adheres to their plans for the year.
Sustainability is embedded in the way we do business and, in 2021, we set 2030 targets in six priority areas, including safety, wellbeing and the environment; gender diversity; stakeholder value creation; decarbonisation; tailings management; and water stewardship.
We have reached the halfway point in our 2030 target cycle and, in 2025, will undertake a mid-point review of our progress against these targets. The review will identify and address any gaps, while also expanding targets to 2035, where appropriate.
During 2024, we made progress on several of our ESG priority areas, as discussed below.
Gender diversity: Women comprised 25%RA of Gold Fields' employees at end-December 2024, unchanged from 2023 but on track to achieve our 2030 target of 30%. We continued promoting diversity and inclusion across our teams as we believe diversity drives better business outcomes through greater agility and innovation while enhancing our ability to overcome challenges.
Stakeholder value creation: Our value distribution to national economies amounted to US$4.2bnRA in 2024, compared to US$3.8bn in 2023. We aim to sustain the value delivered to host communities through employment – host communities provide 52%RA of the total workforce – procurement and social investments. 35%RA of value creation remained with our host communities in 2024, compared to the 2030 target of 30%.
Decarbonisation: 18% of the Group's electricity consumption was from renewable energy sources during 2024 (2023: 17%). St Ives' renewable project, planned for completion in Q1 2026, will deliver the next step change in our drive to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which were 4% below the 2016 baseline by the end of 2024. Scope 3 emissions were 823kt CO2eRA in 2024, 13% below 2023 and 16% below the 2022 baseline. The decrease was driven primarily by the sale of Asanko, lower activity and lower spend-based emissions factors.
Tailings management: During 2024, we reduced the number of active upstream-raised tailings storage facilities (TSF) from five to four when we completed the transition of TSF 2 at Tarkwa to a downstream-raised facility. The transitioning of Tarkwa TSF 1 is set to be completed in 2026.
Water stewardship: Gold Fields also remains on track to achieve its water management 2030 targets, with water reused/recycled totalling 74.4%RA in 2024, and freshwater consumption amounting to 11.1GL – 23% below the baseline.
Gold Fields presents a compelling long-term investment opportunity, offering near-term growth alongside a strong pipeline of development and exploration projects that will deliver sustainable returns for the decade and beyond. Our near-term growth will be driven by three projects we are actively advancing.
Salares Norte: After producing first gold at the end of March 2024, ramp-up of the plant was adversely impacted, and ultimately paused, following severe winter conditions that started in mid-April and continued well into Q3 2024.
The Salares Norte team was able to safely restart the plant at the end of September 2024, and the mine produced 45koz-eq at AISC of US$1,901/oz-eq in Q4 2024. We expect gold-equivalent production for 2025 to range between 325koz-eq – 375koz-eq at AISC of US$975/oz-eq – US$1,125/ oz-eq. 2026 is set to be the first full year of steady-state production, when we expect the mine to produce 550koz-eq – 580koz-eq at AISC of US$825/oz – US$875/oz.
We also made progress with the conservation of the protected short-tailed chinchilla, with three chinchillas safely captured and relocated since October 2024. The capture and relocation programme is ongoing as we continue clearing the remaining rockery areas, which are located above the Agua Amarga ore body.
Windfall project: In October 2024, we acquired 100% of the outstanding shares of Osisko Mining, paying C$2.02bn (US$1.45bn) net of cash received to settle the transaction. Importantly, the transaction consolidates 100% ownership of the Windfall project and its entire exploration district (c.2,500km2) in the tier-1 jurisdiction of Québec, Canada.
In 2025, the project's focus is to obtain the required environmental approvals to support full-scale construction and mining. We expect to receive this in H2 2025. We are also progressing the engineering work required ahead of a final investment decision expected in Q1 2026.
We expect construction of the mine to take approximately 18 – 24 months, with first production set for 2028. At steady state, Windfall is expected to add 300koz per annum to Gold Fields' production profile at an AIC and AISC that is materially lower than the Group average.
We are pleased to have retained key members of the Windfall team, while engagements for the execution of an Impact and Benefits Agreement with the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi and the Cree Nation government, on whose land Windfall is located, are ongoing.
Tarkwa/Iduapriem JV in Ghana: Despite constructive engagement with the Ghanaian government after we announced the proposed JV between Tarkwa and the neighbouring Iduapriem mine, owned by AngloGold Ashanti, in March 2023, we have not yet obtained the requisite approvals by the government.
Following the country's recent national elections, Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti are engaging with the new government on the proposed JV. We continue to believe that combining Tarkwa and Iduapriem into a single managed entity is compelling, given that it is anticipated to extend LOM, increase production and lower costs, thereby creating value for all stakeholders. While working to obtain approval for the JV, we are pursuing improvements to Tarkwa.
Exploration: Greenfields exploration plays a vital role in the Gold Fields' growth strategy and improving the quality of our portfolio, ensuring a pipeline of high-quality, early-stage opportunities to sustain our production profile.
We reinvigorated our exploration efforts with disciplined investment in greenfields exploration in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Gold Fields' exploration portfolio includes 100% landholdings and JVs in Australia, Chile and Peru, complemented by strategic equity positions in several listed junior miners.
View the detailed breakdown of our greenfields exploration strategy and portfolio.
During 2024, we spent US$84.2m on brownfields exploration, of which US$53m was spent at our Australian assets and US$11m at Salares Norte. This resulted in the discovery of 2.3Moz additional Mineral Resources (pre-depletion), including 1.4Moz at St Ives, and helped offset Mineral Reserves depletion at St Ives, Granny Smith and Agnew.
Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources: The Group's attributable gold measured and indicated exclusive Mineral Resources increased by 0.3% to 30.4Moz at 31 December 2024 (2023: 30.3Moz), while attributable inferred exclusive Mineral Resources increased by 13.7% to 11.6Moz (2023: 10.2Moz).
Attributable proved and probable gold Mineral Reserves declined by 0.7% to 44.3Moz at 31 December 2024 (2023: 44.6Moz).
We raised our Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources price assumptions in 2024 to US$1,500/ oz (previously US$1,400/oz) and US$1,725/oz (previously US$1,600/oz), respectively. We plan to include the Windfall project's Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves in the Group figures after a feasibility study is completed and the necessary permits have been granted.
A summary of our Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves position and the Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Supplement to the IAR for further details.
Portfolio rationalisation: Continuing to improve the
value and quality of our portfolio not only entails
the acquisition of assets, but transitioning assets
that are at
end-of-life and rotating out of assets
which we view as non-core.
While Damang continues to perform strongly, we are assessing ways to optimise value for all stakeholders.
Cerro Corona is also maturing, with 2025 planned to be the last year of mining before the operation starts processing stockpiles from 2026 onwards. While it will continue to produce gold and copper and generate cash-flow until 2031, we are currently assessing the responsible pathways for the mine's future.
During 2024, we streamlined the portfolio by selling our 45% stake in the Asanko Gold Mine and our 24% equity interest in Rusoro Mining. We also disposed of our 40% stake and terminated our option agreement to buy an additional 20% in the Far Southeast asset in the Philippines.
Capital allocation is a key element of our strategic decision-making process. In this regard, we refined our Capital Allocation Framework to guide how capital is deployed and ensure the most attractive return on this capital. In terms of this framework, our capital allocation priorities are as follows:
After satisfying the above priorities, discretionary growth investments, including exploration, life extension of existing assets, organic growth opportunities and M&A opportunities, are balanced with additional returns to shareholders. Work is continuing to determine the most effective way to deliver additional competitive returns to our current shareholders, while also attracting new equity investors.
Looking at 2025, our primary focus is ensuring safe, reliable and cost-effective delivery against our production plans and guidance for the year. This will provide the platform for continued progress of our strategic priorities, which are aligned to the three strategic pillars of our business.
We expect attributable gold-equivalent production for 2025 to be between 2.250Moz – 2.450Moz at an AISC of between US$1,500/oz – US$1,650/oz, and AIC of between US$1,780/oz – US$1,930/oz.
2025 is expected to be another year of relatively high capex given the remaining capital for the renewables microgrid at St Ives and the predevelopment capital planned for Windfall. Furthermore, sustaining capital is expended across the portfolio to maintain the production base of the Group.
Total capex for the Group for the year is expected to range between US$1,490bn – US$1,550bn, which includes sustaining capital of US$940m – US$970m and non-sustaining capex of US$550m – US$580m, with the largest component of the latter expected to come from the Windfall project capital of C$403m (US$282m) and the St Ives renewable power project of US$110m.
Coming into an organisation with a rich 138-year corporate history, I have relied on the experience and commitment of my colleagues. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the people of Gold Fields for the support they have shown me over the past 15 months. These are dedicated and talented people, who care deeply about the work they do and are committed to delivering value for all stakeholders.
I want to thank my fellow leadership team for making me feel welcomed and providing the sound guidance for what have been some tough strategic decisions during the year.
To Yunus and my fellow directors, I also extend my appreciation for entrusting me with leading Gold Fields and for the governance guidance they have provided.
Gold Fields offers a unique value proposition and I strongly believe that with our quality portfolio, capable leadership team and dedication of all the people that work in and with Gold Fields, we will continue building a business that is resilient, offers a compelling value proposition for our shareholders and delivers on our purpose to create enduring value beyond mining for all our stakeholders.
Mike Fraser
CEO