SUSTAINABILITY Water Management

Water Stewardship

Introduction

Issues of sustainability have long been part of Gold Fields’ way of doing business, the importance of these areas to our business has increased. We have entrenched ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) as a business imperative at our mines and have elevated it to one of our three strategic pillars.

One of the pillars is “Building on our leading commitment to ESG” and has six priorities:

Access to water is a fundamental human right and a vital resource for Gold Fields’ mining and ore processing activities and we share it with communities, the environment, and other industries in the catchment areas in which we operate. Managing our impacts on water users and resources is essential to maintaining our license to operate and we are committed to responsible water stewardship.

Impact

Three of the countries in which we operate, South Africa, Australia and Chile, are considered water stressed. Climate change impacts our operations and communities in a number of ways — severe rainfall, shifts in rainfall patterns and prolonged droughts, among others – and responsible and effective water management is increasingly critical to Gold Fields.

Not only will water scarcity or excessive rainfall adversely impact operations, as water is a vital resource for our mining and ore processing activities, it is also an essential need for our host communities – particularly where agriculture is an important economic activity. Managing our impacts on water catchment areas - by ensuring that we do not denude the quality or reduce the volume of water in areas around out mines - is therefore key to maintaining our social license to operate.

Gold Fields Policies and Commitments

Our Water Stewardship Policy Statement was updated in 2022 and forms an integral part of our Sustainable Development framework and commits us to the following objectives:

Everyone working for, on behalf of, and third parties to Gold Fields’ operations play an active role in achieving these commitments

The following internal guidelines support our work in this area (they are not in the public domain):

We work with various local, national and international organisations and programmes to support improvements in water stewardship across the industry:

Management Actions

Our approach is guided by the 2030 Water Stewardship Framework, which we developed following a bottom-up approach. All operations have updated their water stewardship strategies to 2030, supported by three-year tactical plans. Our strategy focuses on proactive water management and efficiency while enhancing engagement with catchment stakeholders to create enduring value beyond mining. It consists of the following pillars:

As part of our 2030 ESG targets launched in 2021, we set two overriding water management targets: reducing our freshwater usage by 45% from a 2018 baseline and recycling and reusing at least 80% of the water we use. These long-term targets have been translated into annual targets.

Our Stakeholders and Partners
Measurement, Evaluation, Assurance and Assessment

Each site is responsible for measuring and reporting on both site-specific water performance and the key Group water performance indicators, as specified in the Gold Fields Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guideline (the GRI Guideline). The Group reporting includes:

Setting, capturing, and monitoring progress against agreed targets is the responsibility of each operation and region. The Corporate Office is responsible for providing guidance, tools and assimilation of this information for the Group. Progress against targets is reported quarterly to the Safety, Health and Sustainable Development (SHSD) Committee of the Gold Fields Board.

Annual assurance is provided by a competent independent external assurance provider (as recommended by management and approved by the relevant sub-committee of the Gold Fields Board) on the key Group water performance indicators that are selected for inclusion in the Integrated Annual Report

The annual external assurance engagement is managed by the corporate office and findings from the work is reported to the regions as well as the relevant sub-committees of the Gold Fields Board, including, but not limited to the Audit Committee.

Reporting and Disclosure

Company water performance, material risks, opportunities, management responses are monitored, reported and transparently disclosed using consistent industry metrics, and recognized approaches. This includes but is not limited to: