CEO Nick Holland is unambiguous - the Gold Fields vision is to be the global leader in sustainable gold mining. Other metals do not figure, except as by-products of gold.
Even the promising Arctic Platinum Project palladium/platinum joint venture in Finland merited little mention when Holland and his executive team took analysts through the group's strategy in Johannesburg during the week.
Within five years the group's aim is to be producing a sustainable 5.2 to 5.5-million ounces of gold annually - a million each from West Africa, Australia and South America, and between 2.2-million and 2.5-million ounces from South Africa.
Is this realistic, given that the group only managed 906000 ounces in the September quarter and is targeting "only" 925000 ounces this current quarter?
The four South African mines, with their large resources and long life expectancies, will remain core. But new mines will be outside this country, with a project pipeline containing near-term developments near existing properties through to early-stage greenfields exploration near and remote from existing mines.
As exploration head Tommy McKeith pointed out, the entire gold industry is being sustained by maturing mines discovered 20 years ago or more. Exploration discoveries, he said, have been in sharp decline. The reasons are clear.
These days it costs an average of $50 to find each ounce of gold, against $7.50 in today's money 50 years ago; exploration expenditure is highly volatile, and many players in the mining industry itself have relied on junior explorers whose aim is to prove largish resources and then sell them as fast as possible. Not Gold Fields.
Gold Fields has bought into deposits found by others, but its fundamental strategy is on focused and aggressive exploration growth. This financial year's exploration budget has been set at $120-million, continuing the strategy that has delivered a full pipeline of new and expanded projects outside South Africa.
As importantly, the ongoing exploration and drilling programmes have provided the group with new insights into the geology of its various operating regions, insights that reinforce its confidence that prospects can be converted into mines to deliver the million-ounce annual production targets of each of the three operating areas outside South Africa.
In South Africa itself, regional head Vishnu Pillay reckons that electricity comprises 10% of total operating costs, and that pumping, refrigeration and ventilation - all of which are unavoidable in deep-level mines - absorb 57% of electricity usage.
The concern is that if Eskom's proposed tariff increases are granted, electricity's portion of the total operating costs could rise to 30% within three or four years. The mining industry's task is to find means of using less power while negotiating with government and electricity regulator Nersa over ways to restrain tariff increases.
Driefontein is set to remain in operation as the group's flagship operation until 2040, with a resource reckoned at 52.8-million ounces and a life-of-mine head grade of 8.5g/t. The future lies in optimising mining below 50 level, probably using decline shafts incrementally to reach the deeper ore. At this stage, Kloof's operations are expected to last until 2030, based on a gold resource of 78.9-million ounces.
Beatrix is being planned around exten-sions to existing workings and operations continuing until 2022.
"The last man standing" of South Africa's deep-level gold mining industry seems likely to be South Deep, which is expected to be producing gold until at least 2050. The technical and operating problems that have plagued the mine are steadily being resolved, and the immediate annual prod-uction target of 300000 ounces is set to rise to some 800000 ounces by the end of 2014.
In West Africa, Ghana's Tarkwa mine is targeting an annual 800000 ounces (of which 71.1% is attributable to Gold Fields) and a mine life of 13 years. For the present the Damang mine is being planned on a life extending to 2019. But, as with Tarkwa, neighbouring resource targets could well extend operations to 2025 at an annual production rate of 240000 ounces, of which 71.1% is attributable to Gold Fields.
The group is not as far down the track in Mali, but the two Komana prospects are at an advanced stage of exploration in what is an under-explored but highly prospective district. Essentially, the group needs "one good mine" to hit its 1-million ounce annual target for West Africa.
Much the same goes for Australia, where drilling around the St Ives and Agnew mines has disclosed highly promising extensions and additions to existing operations.
In Peru the Cerro Corona gold/copper mine is expected to produce 320000 ounces of gold equivalent next year, once the constraint of tailings dumping is resolved.
Latin America's hopes of reaching its million-ounce target lie with the Chucapaca project in southern Peru, the Tacna project in Peru and the Pircas project in northern Chile, the latter two of which are early-stage greenfields exploration ventures.
Chief financial officer Paul Schmidt emphasised that Gold Fields does not hedge gold and prefers funding to come first from internal resources, then structured debt and then, as a last resort, equity issues.
He is comfortable with the group's ability to fund capital spending running at an annual R8-billion or so for the next four or five years and to manage maturing debt.
This past year, notional cash expenditure averaged $821/oz, which looks pretty convincing as the metal tests new highs above $1000.
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