RECORD SAFETY YEAR.
PRODUCTION AND COST BEAT GUIDANCE FOR THE QUARTER.

JOHANNESBURG. 6 August 2009, Gold Fields Limited (NYSE & JSE: GFI) today announced normalised earnings excluding gains and losses on foreign exchange, financial instruments, exceptional items and share of profits and losses of associates after taxation for the June 2009 quarter of R949 million, compared with normalised earnings of R1,369 million and R943 million for the March 2009 and the December 2008 quarters respectively. In US dollar terms normalised earnings for the June 2009 quarter were US$109 million, compared with of US$146 million and US$123 million for the March 2009 and the December 2008 quarters respectively.

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Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this document constitute “forward looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the US Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and other important factors include among others: economic, business and political conditions in South Africa, Ghana, Australia, Peru and elsewhere; the ability to achieve anticipated efficiencies and other cost savings in connection with past and future acquisitions, exploration and development activities; decreases in the market price of gold and/or copper; hazards associated with underground and surface gold mining; labour disruptions; availability terms and deployment of capital or credit; changes in government regulations, particularly environmental regulations; and new legislation affecting mining and mineral rights; changes in exchange rates; currency devaluations; inflation and other macro-economic factors, industrial action, temporary stoppages of mines for safety reasons; and the impact of the AIDS crisis in South Africa. These forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this document.

The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or release any revisions to these forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

June 2009 quarter salient features:

  • Attributable gold production increased by 4 per cent to 906,000 ounces;
  • Total cash costs decreased 6 per cent from R150,301 per kilogram (US$471 per ounce) to R140,916 per kilogram (US$512 per ounce);
  • Notional cash expenditure decreased 5 per cent from R213,403 per kilogram (US$668 per ounce) to R203,042 per kilogram (US$738 per ounce);
  • Commenced construction of Athena, the fourth underground mine at St Ives, in July.
  • Offer post quarter end to be made for Glencar which owns the Komana project in Mali. 29.9 per cent acquired to date;
  • The 19.9 per cent stake in Sino Gold sold for a consideration of US$282 million and closed in July;
  • Net debt declines from R7.7 billion to R6.1 billion.

A final dividend of 80 SA cents per share is payable on 31 August 2009, giving a total dividend for financial 2009 of 110 SA cents per share.

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.”


Stock data   JSE Limited – (GFI)  
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