Gold Fields Limited: Record Safety Year
Posted on: Thursday, 6 August 2009, 03:32 CDT
A final dividend of 80 SA cents per share is payable on
Statement by
"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
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.
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."
The full results are available on the Gold Fields website:
About Gold Fields
Gold Fields Limited is one of the world's largest unhedged producers of
gold with attributable steady state production of approximately 4 million
ounces per annum from nine operating mines in
SOURCE Gold Fields Limited
Source: PR Newswire
Related Articles
- Allied World Reports Record Operating Results in Third Quarter 2009; 27.4% Increase in Total Book Value Year to Date; 11% Dividend Increase Announced
- ONEOK Reports Third-quarter 2009 Results; Increases 2009 Earnings Guidance
- Raytheon Reports Strong Third Quarter 2009 Results; Increases Full-Year Guidance
- Towerstream Second Quarter 2009 Revenues Increased 47% Over Second Quarter 2008
- Addax Petroleum announces record production in second quarter 2009 results
- Royal Gold Reports Fiscal Third Quarter 2009 Results
- General Dynamics Reports Strong Revenue, Earnings Per Share Growth in First Quarter 2009
- Aurizon announces 2008 gold production and plans for 2009
- Royal Gold Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2009 Results and Restatement of Fiscal 2008 Financial Statements
- Newcrest Mining Increases Gold Production in Fourth Quarter
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds