Corporate

Registration of Beatrix’s carbon project

Gold Fields is leading the mining industry in reducing climate change with its innovative carbon credit project at its Beatrix mine in Welkom,in the Free State. On 7 September 2011, this project reached a major milestone with its registration as a South African Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The project not only reduces carbon emissions and significantly increases safety but will also generate an alternative source of clean energy. It is expected that the carbon emissions at the operation will be reduced from the 2010 base by 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) during the period 2011 to 2018. Methane gas is captured at its source and piped to surface where it is either flared or used to generate electricity. This is the first time that this type of project has been implemented in South Africa.

Although gold mines are generally not viewed as big carbon emitters, the situation is different in South Africa because deep level mines are hot and energy intensive. This project is therefore an important contribution to the reduction of carbon emissions and was awarded the European Energy Risk Deal of the Year award in 2010.

Option agreement in the Philippines

In terms of the option agreements to acquire a 60 per cent interest in the undeveloped gold-copper Far Southeast (FSE) deposit in the Philippines, the second down-payment of US$66 million was made on 21 September 2011. The option agreements were entered into with Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (Lepanto), a company listed in the Philippines, and Liberty Express Assets, a private holding company.

The non-refundable down-payment of US$66 million to Liberty is the second in a series of three payments. The first payment of US$54 million was paid with the signing of the option agreement on 20 September 2010. To finalise the acquisition of the 60 per cent interest in FSE, a final payment of US$220 million will be required to be paid in the first half of 2012. The total pre-agreed acquisition price for a 60 per cent interest in FSE, inclusive of all of the above payments, is US$340 million.

Moody's changes Gold Fields Baa3 credit rating outlook to positive from stable

According to Moody’s Investor Services (Moody’s) a change in outlook was mainly prompted by Gold Fields’ continued progress in terms of further diversifying its production and EBITDA geographically and becoming less dependent on South Africa. Combined with this view was the increased expectation that the company would also be able to maintain its conservative leverage of Net Debt to EBITDA ratio below one and maintain a positive free cash flow generation, even in a much lower gold price environment.

Gold Fields has also maintained an investment grade credit rating of BBB- (Stable outlook) from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P).

Changes to the executive

Peet van Schalkwyk has been appointed as Executive Vice President (EVP) and Head of Operations for West Africa, replacing Peter Turner who took up the position of EVP, South Africa region during August.

Peet returns to Gold Fields after working as General Manager of Alamos Gold Incorporated in Turkey for the past eighteen months. Prior to this he was General Manager at both Tarkwa and Damang in Ghana. Peet also worked in Mali as metallurgical manager for five years. His wealth of experience and knowledge of the operations and mineral deposits in the region will contribute to the success and growth of our footprint in West Africa.