Statement by Nick Holland, Chief Executive Officer of Gold Fields:
“The final quarter of F2009 was the third
consecutive quarter of strong and improved
operational performance for Gold Fields against
our strategic objectives of delivering a step change
in our safety performance; increasing our
production base; and maintaining rigorous cost
control aimed at improving the generation of free
cash flow.
F2009 has, by a considerable margin, been the
best safety year in the history of Gold Fields.
Never the less, I regret to report eight fatal injuries
for the quarter. Seven of these were seismically
related and occurred in a two-week period late in
the quarter, when a wave of seismicity struck the
West Wits region.
These accidents bring the total number of fatalities
for F2009 to 21, compared with 47 during F2008,
which represents a 55 per cent improvement year
on year.
I deeply regret this loss of life and it remains my
personal objective, and that of every person in
Gold Fields, to eliminate all serious and fatal
accidents on our mines, and not to mine if we
cannot mine safely. While this is a profound
commitment to make in an industry characterised
by high levels of risk, particularly in the seismically
active deep level mining environment in South
Africa, it is a moral and commercial imperative for
the sustainability of our industry.
Despite the impact of the unusual incidence of
seismicity which affected the production of both
Kloof and Driefontein, Gold Fields had a strong quarter, beating guidance and increasing
production by 4 per cent over Q3F2009.
This
brings our total increase in production over the last
three quarters to approximately 15 per cent.
Particularly pleasing has been the improvements at
Beatrix and Tarkwa which increased production by
29 and 8 per cent respectively. Both of these
mines have now largely resolved the issues that
affected production in previous quarters, and
Tarkwa should increase production further in the
September quarter. Cerro Corona also had a
particularly strong quarter on the back of improved
production and a stronger copper price, increasing
production on an equivalent ounce basis by
approximately 37 per cent.
As a consequence of the stronger rand, our
operating margin decreased from 47 per cent to 43
per cent. However, we continued to generate
positive free cash flow on the back of increased
production and good cost management.
We have decided to write down the investment in
Rusoro to its market value at year end notwithstanding
our view that its inherent value is
significantly greater than its current market value.
This is the main contributing factor towards the net
loss during the quarter.
During F2010 we will remain focused on improving
our safety performance; increasing our focus on
our people; and continue the increasing production
trend.”
Number of shares in issue |
|
Range - Quarter |
ZAR88.35 – ZAR111.90 |
- at end June 2009 |
704,749,849 |
|
Average Volume - Quarter |
2,892,541 shares / day |
- average for the quarter |
704,571,069 |
|
NYSE – (GFI) |
|
Free Float |
100% |
|
Range - Quarter |
US$10.09 – US$13.72 |
ADR Ratio |
1:1 |
|
Average Volume - Quarter |
5,725,149 shares / day |
Bloomberg / Reuters |
GFISJ / GFLJ.J |
|
|
|
|
|