2024
Gold Fields Limited
Integrated Annual Report
Risks and opportunities
We acknowledge the impact and influence of the broader global context, as well as that of the internal dynamics of the countries we operate in and the capacities and constraints of our operating assets. These impacts provide both risks and opportunities to our business. We identify and respond to both longer-term strategic and emerging risks and opportunities and shorter-term potential impacts – prioritising them as needed, including them in strategic planning reviews, and adjusting mitigating actions to protect the sustainability of our business.
Gold Fields' approach to enterprise risk management is based on the requirements of King IV, the
South African Corporate Governance Code of Conduct and
ISO 31000, the international guideline on risk
management. The Group also subscribes to the risk management requirements of the ICMM's 10 Mining Principles.
Our enterprise risk management process follows a top-down approach to categorising the Group's risks, which include:
- Group-wide strategic risks, which are broad risk categories that apply across Gold Fields and could materially impact the delivery of our strategy
- Other strategic risks, which are more specific risk events that may apply to a particular asset or group of assets. These risks fall within a strategic risk category, but are potentially material enough to warrant specific highlighting and particular focus from our management teams
- Catastrophic risks, which are potential disastrous events that may cause loss of life, extensive damage to infrastructure and prolonged production losses, and could significantly impact our stakeholders and Gold Fields' reputation. Should a catastrophic risk event materialise, it may prompt a review of the Group's strategy
Risk management is integrated into all business processes. Our corporate and asset leadership teams conduct formal risk management reviews every quarter to assess the risks to the business and track and monitor progress against mitigating actions. These reviews are then presented to the Board 's Risk Committee biannually for verification.
This report presents the consolidated Group strategic risks. These risks, supported by the change in the organisational structure, illustrate a shift to portfolio-level risk management in line with industry practice.
Risk appetite and tolerance
We apply risk appetite and tolerance principles to assess whether we are taking the appropriate amount of risk in pursuit of our strategic objectives.
For each of our strategic risk categories, we define our risk appetite by identifying the risks we will not take, those risks we have to take and need to mitigate, and those risks we actively pursue. We then identify key risk indicators for the strategic risk categories and define tolerance limits for each indicator. We embed these indicators in our business performance management and reporting.
The Board conducts quarterly governance and oversight meetings as part of its annual Board cycle, during which significant aspects of the business are comprehensively questioned and reviewed. Any misalignment with Company objectives or good corporate governance is discussed and remedial action requested. This is in line with our formal Approval Framework, which strictly defines decision parameters and risk tolerance.
For a more detailed assessment on how we determine our risks and materiality, see www.goldfields.com/risk-materiality.php
Risk description
Strategic pillar 1
1
Safety and wellbeing of our people
3
Delivery of expected profitability and cash-flows
4
Predictable operating delivery
7
Business partner integration
9
Access to talent required to execute strategy
11
Cybersecurity vulnerabilities leading to incident
Strategic pillar 2
2
Country and regulatory risk
8
Licence to operate and social expectation
10
Operational impact due to lack of climate adaptation measures
Strategic pillar 3
5
Delivery of growth through M&A and greenfields exploration
6
Delivery of growth through Mineral Resource management and delivery of capital projects
Managing safety and health risks is inherent to our business. The failure to do so could result in unacceptable levels of incidents leading to injury, illness or fatality. This could also impact our delivery of expected profitability and cash-flows (risk 3).
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 1: Deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective operations
Board oversight
- Board of Directors
- SHSD Committee
- SET Committee
Mitigation strategy
Guaranteeing the safety, health and wellbeing of our people is critical to us. We continuously review and upgrade our safety systems, processes and programmes, and assess the health and maturity of our culture. In line with this philosophy, we appointed external safety experts to perform a safety diagnostic across the Group during H1 2024 – with the results informing our safety improvement plan, which is being implemented. We appointed a dedicated Group safety executive to oversee the diagnostic and the implementation of the recommendations.
Threats
- Uncontrolled risk exposure leading to potentially serious injury or fatality
- Undetermined or uncontrollable occupational health exposure, with potential life-altering impacts
- Workplace culture and behaviours with potential long-term impacts on mental health
- Catastrophic and material unwanted events at our operations without identified and implemented controls
Opportunities
- Partnering with industry forums, peers and business partners on shared learnings
- Safe work practices improving operational effectiveness and efficiencies
2025 focus areas
- Reviewing the recommendations of the dss+ review
- Implementing the safety improvement plan
- Continuing to implement recommendations from the EB&Co review
- Advancing our cultural transformation programme
Changes to our socio-political climate and regulatory environment could impact our ability to obtain and maintain approvals, as well as asset profitability and/or ownership. This could impact predictable operating delivery (risk 4) and our ability to achieve planned profitability and cash-flows (risk 3).
Link to strategy
Link to strategy Strategic pillar 2: Deliver positive social and environmental impact
Board oversight
- Board of Directors
- SET Committee
- Risk committee
Mitigation strategy
We undertake comprehensive stakeholder engagement programmes across all levels of government, including regulatory agencies, to maintain transparent and constructive dialogue about our business and operating environment. These programmes are informed by independent country risk assessments. We intensify our engagement during times of political uncertainty, particularly during elections. During 2024, three of our operating countries held national elections, while the global political environment was also more challenging amid a number of conflicts around the world. Additional engagements are channelled through mining associations in collaboration with our peers. As a last resort, we review our legal options, particularly in terms of adherence to investment agreements.
Threats
- Legal and illegal ASM
- Shifts in national leadership that increase uncertainty
- Fiscal deficits and the need to generate additional revenue
- Contagion from regional geopolitical instability
- Mining in fragile ecosystems
- Land rights and Indigenous Peoples
- Infrastructure/services challenges
- Socio-economic pressures
Opportunities
- Developing and successfully executing a broad-based stakeholder engagement plan
- Exceptional delivery against our sustainability objectives and becoming the partner of choice through positive impact
- Exploring and operating in new jurisdictions
- Entering JVs and partnerships
2025 focus areas
- Developing and successfully executing a broad-based stakeholder engagement plan
- Developing a Group-level approach to identifying, assessing and responding to country risk
- Progressing the Tarkwa/Iduapriem JV in Ghana
- Pursuing our agreement-making strategy with First Nations Peoples in both Australia and Canada
Inconsistent operational performance and rising input costs, along with fluctuations in commodity prices and exchange rates, may lead to margin erosion, thereby reducing the Group's profitability and cash-flows. This could impact Gold Fields' ability to fund operations, sustain growth and deliver shareholder returns.
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 1: Deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective operations
Board oversight
- Board of Directors
- Audit Committee
- Technical Committee
Mitigation strategy
We have safety, business, productivity and cost improvement processes and programmes in place at all our operations. This is supported by our Asset Optimisation (AO) strategy to improve safety and efficiency in a way that creates value. We conduct monthly and quarterly asset reviews to ensure spending remains within budget. Our mines provide cost guidance to the market at the beginning of each financial year. The change in the Group's organisational structure during the year created opportunities to optimise our processes and systems and drive greater efficiency. When assessing M&A opportunities, AIC/oz is a key criterion for investment decisions.
Threats
- Inability to deliver on safety (risk 1) and operational performance (risk 4)
- Inability to deliver on capital schedule and budget
- External inflationary pressures and commodity price and exchange rate volatility
- Regulatory and tax changes
- Supply chain disruptions
Opportunities
- Improving safety and operational efficiency
- Investing in asset full potential and technical systems to improve efficiencies and performance
- Implementing a brownfields exploration programme to deliver higher margin ounces
- Reviewing the owner model at each asset
- Optimising processes and systems to reduce general and administrative expenses
- Optimising procurement strategies
- Portfolio management opportunities
- Short-term hedging to protect cash-flows
- Leveraging the upside of commodity price and exchange rate movements
2025 focus areas
- Implementing AO transformations at our operations
- Review our Group procurement model
- Implementing cost optimisation initiatives across all Group functions
- Conducting an information technology (IT) diagnostic to optimise IT and operational technology (OT) systems
- Standardising and optimising business processes to drive efficiency
The failure to deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective operations in line with the Group's business plan and market guidance could result in missed revenue, reputational damage and associated impacts on our share price and ability to deliver shareholder returns. This could impact our ability to send our people home safe and healthy every day (risk 1), to meet societal expectations that, in turn, leads to a loss of our licence to operate (risk 8), and to achieve planned profitability and cash-flows (risk 3).
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 1: Deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective operations
Board oversight
- Board of Directors
- Technical Committee
Mitigation strategy
Developing the Group's 2025 business plan was a robust process in conjunction with all
operations and functions, which was underpinned by detailed
quantitative risk analysis.
We set internal targets and external guidance for each asset which, based on
our
risk analysis, can be achieved. A key focus for
H1 2025 is our winterisation effort at Salares Norte. We have safety, business, productivity and cost
improvement processes and programmes in place at all
our operations, supported by our AO Strategy. We conduct monthly and quarterly asset reviews to assess
progress against our business plans, with more
frequent reviews in response to variable performance.
Threats
- Employee safety and health risks
- Negative environmental impacts
- Operational inflexibility due to structural constraints and the fixed nature of costs
- Adverse weather impacts
- Regulatory action
Opportunities
- Building operational flexibility into our operations to deliver additional value in a higher gold price environment
- Building capabilities by embracing a new approach to talent attraction and retention
- Investing in asset full potential and technical systems to improve efficiencies and performance
- Co-developing technical solutions with third parties to unlock potential
2025 focus areas
- Delivering AO efficiency improvement initiatives
- Completed Salares Norte ramp-up implementation
- Optimising operating system to drive efficiency across the Company
- Developing a business partner framework and processes
Insufficient quality growth – through M&A or exploration – to sustain the Group's production profile could impact future cash-flows and reduce shareholder returns and market capitalisation. It could also affect our ability to maintain our competitive advantage.
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 3: Grow the value and quality of our portfolio of assets
Board oversight
- Board of Directors
- Strategy and Investment Committee
- Technical Committee
Mitigation strategy
The Group's strategic planning process is key to mitigating this risk. We continue to evaluate value-accretive opportunities to build the value of our portfolio, including acquisitions, divestments, JVs, new mine builds and other strategic projects.
Threats
- Inability to identify and secure emerging opportunities through M&A or earn-in agreements
- Exploration programmes that do not yield the required outcomes in the required timeframes
- Changes in economic circumstances
- Decline in gold, copper and silver commodity prices
Opportunities
- Acquiring new ore bodies
- Having a broad and balanced geographical base
2025 focus areas
- Progressing the Tarkwa/Iduapriem JV in Ghana
- Focusing on asset portfolio management and M&A opportunities
- Greenfields exploration programmes in Australia, Peru, Chile and Canada
Insufficient growth – through brownfields exploration, Mineral Resource conversion and project delivery – to sustain our production profile could impact future cash-flows and reduce shareholder returns and market capitalisation. It could also affect our ability to maintain our competitive advantage. Managing key capital projects effectively is critical to ensure we deliver to market expectations – this includes capital cost and commercial levels of production guidance to avoid missed revenue, higher costs, reputational damage and share price impacts.
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 3: Grow the value and quality of our portfolio of assets
Board oversight
- Technical Committee
Mitigation strategy
The Group's strategic planning process is key to mitigating this risk, with detailed consideration of LOM capital requirements to support value-accretive asset delivery. We will develop the Windfall project's execution strategy with the intention of establishing a project standard for the Group. This will also incorporate learnings from developing projects at Gruyere and Salares Norte. Our operations have comprehensive near-mine exploration programmes in place, the performance of which is monitored during quarterly business reviews. Over the past 15 years, our Australian mines have consistently replaced depleted Mineral Reserves and more.
Threats
- Mineral Resource conversion to deliver high margin ounces
- Cost inflation and ability to deliver capital projects on schedule and on budget
- Significant timeframes from initial exploration phase to project approval and delivery
- Failure to deliver on guidance
- Lost opportunities to generate cash-flow and profit
Opportunities
- Maintaining capital efficiency
- Maintaining a sustainable production profile
2025 focus areas
- Completing the development of the Windfall feasibility study to support final investment decision in early 2026
- Implementing Salares Norte brownfield exploration programme
- Implementing a project portfolio management system
- Updating study, estimating and scheduling standards
Failure to integrate our business partners could impact our ability to deliver on our objectives, and we need to ensure decisions to outsource aligns with the Group's strategy. This could impact our ability to ensure our people go home safe and healthy every day (risk 1), as well as our ability to achieve our planned profitability and cash-flows (risk 3) and maintaining our licence to operate (risk 8).
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 1: Deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective operations
Board oversight
- SET Committee
Mitigation strategy
We are appointing specific contractor management resources in high-impact areas like, for example, major projects and operational activities. We further drive greater inclusivity of contractor employees with the activities and programmes of permanent employees, thus delivering a more integrated and Board oversight effective workforce.
Threats
- Business partners subcontracting services and activities
- Cultural misalignment between Gold Fields and business partners
- Poor performance by business partners
- Sustainability of business contractors
Opportunities
- Supporting and developing emerging business partners as part of our local skills development objectives
- Cost, efficiency, skills and expertise benefits which are potentially
associated with
business partners
2025 focus areas
- Developing a Business Partner Framework and supporting processes
The Group's failure to comply with regulatory requirements or act in accordance with societal expectations for corporate governance and social performance, could impact our social licence to operate – leading to delayed or cancelled approvals, operational disruptions and reputational damage.
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 2: Deliver positive social and environmental impact
Board oversight
- Board of Directors
- SET Committee
- Risk committee
Mitigation strategy
With our commitment to sustainability as one of our three strategic pillars, we pursue a range of comprehensive 2030 targets devised after extensive work with our operations – including setting capital budgets to support those commitments – to ensure that, while ambitious in nature, they are achievable.
Threats
- Increasing climate-related risk to our operations and communities
- Increasing political instability and regulatory oversight
- Changing socio-economic conditions
- Increasing and integrated sustainability-related financial disclosure expectations
- Increasing stakeholder expectations of performance and disclosure
Opportunities
- Using diverse financial instruments to deliver existing commitments
- Leading nature/biodiversity-positive investment and research
- Partnering and collaborating with increasingly diverse stakeholders
- Integrating environmental, social and economic approaches to challenges
- Collaborating with business partners to improve sustainability outcomes
- Embracing the changing nature and ways of work
2025 focus areas
- Continue to create a safe workplace where everyone feels respected, valued and empowered to speak up
- Conducting a mid-point review of our 2030 targets and revising tactical plans accordingly
- Continuing to deliver on our 2030 ESG commitments
- Setting 2035 aspirations for the Group
- Progressing social transition plans for Damang and Cerro Corona
- Progressing the implementation of the chinchilla capture and relocation plan at Salares Norte
- Improving environment and social risk management maturity through risk architecture and control standard definition
Failure to recruit and retain both the required workforce to meet our business needs today and those of the future could result in key-person dependency and the inability to execute on critical elements of the Group's strategy.
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 1: Deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective operations
Board oversight
- Remuneration Committee
- SET Committee
Mitigation strategy
Gold Fields' business depends on fit-for-purpose organisational structures filled with capable talent to ensure we meet our current and future operational and business requirements. In 2024, we implemented a new organisational structure to drive standardised ways of working and provide agility and growth opportunities that can leverage the experience of our people across the Group. Looking ahead, we will focus on advancing our culture transformation initiatives to ensure we have the right leadership capabilities supported by fit-for-purpose structures, processes and practices to meet the requirements of our global business, and drive efficiencies. We continue building the awareness, skills and capabilities of our people to drive a respectful workplace. In addition, we aim to ensure consistent global standards, processes and systems that make onboarding and integrating new and developing talent simpler.
Threats
- Lack of a respectful workplace that ignores the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of our people and their working environment
- Balancing operational needs with time for capability development
- Not integrating learning interventions across disciplines and operations
- High employee turnover
- Poor engagement levels
Opportunities
- Revising global talent approach integrated with the functional talent needs
- Simplifying the learning landscape and integrating learning moments into our day-to-day operations
- Introducing a new performance process based on continuous performance management and feedback
- Improving succession and development planning
- Integrating culture, engagement and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging actions into learning offerings
2025 focus areas
- Revising the global job architecture to align with our new organisational structure, which defines role requirements and career path opportunities
- Continuing with Inspire and Ignite programmes and rolling out a supervisory programme and critical skills development programmes
- Revising the talent process with functional leads in line with the new organisational structure, with more specific development planning focused on on-the-job exposure and development, formal learning and line management coaching
The Group's failure to identify and mitigate climate-related events that may impact our operations or ability to execute our strategy, leading to operational disruptions and lost revenue. This risk impacts on our ability to deliver predictable operating results (risk 4) and meet societal expectations that leads to a loss of licence to operate (risk 8).
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 2: Deliver positive social and environmental impact
Board oversight
- SHSD Committee
- Risk committee
Mitigation strategy
We adopted a comprehensive Decarbonisation Strategy, which specifies our carbon goals for 2030, and our 2025 priorities and includes reviewing and updating our plans to deliver these 2030 goals. We also seek to leverage international standards and guidelines by, for example, complying with industry standards like the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). Given the changing environment and growing impact of rising global temperatures and extreme weather events, we are reviewing our climate change vulnerability risk assessments. We continue to enhance the resilience of our operations by rolling out renewable energy initiatives, and have implemented measures to mitigate the potential impact of extreme weather events, including flood management strategies, extreme temperature response plans and insurance cover.
Threats
- Operational disruptions due to extreme rainfall events
- High temperatures impacting underground ventilation strategies
- Impact of climate change on host communities
Opportunities
- Greater mix of renewable electricity
- Leveraging new technologies
- Improving asset resilience
- Establishing and strengthening partnerships with government and communities
2025 focus areas
- Improving environmental and social risk management maturity
- Conducting a mid-point review of our 2030 targets and revising tactical plans accordingly
- Continuing to implement our Decarbonisation Strategy
A weak cybersecurity control environment could lead to unauthorised disclosure of sensitive information or business disruption. This risk impacts our ability to achieve our safety ambitions (risk 1), deliver predictable operating results (risk 4) and our financial performance targets (risk 3).
Link to strategy
Strategic pillar 1: Deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective operations
Board oversight
- Audit Committee
- Risk committee
Mitigation strategy
In response to the escalating and dynamic global cybercrime landscape, we deployed enterprise-wide software platforms to safeguard critical IT and OT infrastructure essential to our ongoing sustainability. This includes continuous monitoring of both our internal systems and third-party risks, leveraging always-on vendor risk management platforms. All activities related to people, procedures and cybersecurity controls are optimised and designed for continuous improvement. Reinforcing our commitment to best practices, all our mining operations and offices, with the exception of those in Chile and Canada, hold ISO 27001 cybersecurity certification.
Threats
- Dramatic increases in cyberattacks globally
- Security posture of OT systems
- Poor user awareness of new cyber threats
- Fast changing technological environment, including the rapid availability of AI platforms
- Rapid digital transformation of the mining value chain
Opportunities
- Data-driven risk-based approach to cyber response
- Improved collaboration with business functions
- Ability to digitise
- Secure OT systems
2025 focus areas
- Conducting a Group IT diagnostic and developing and implementing an agreed IT roadmap
