Gold Fields targets incremental output growth, billions in additional shareholder returns

Gold Fields has announced it will provide shareholders with additional returns of up to $500 million (about R8.5 billion) over the next two years:

This comes against the backdrop of continued record gold prices on international markets.

The additional returns will be in the form of share buybacks and/or special dividends, with the details to be communicated with the company's 2025 final dividend declaration.

At its Capital Markets Day on Wednesday, the global Joburg-headquartered gold miner also presented a bullish five-year outlook across production, costs and capital expenditure as well as projected cash flows.

In conversation with Stephen Grootes, Gold Fields CEO Mike Fraser emphasizes that they are not investing only for today, but for future generations.

"Gold Fields has a proud history of over 138 years of continuous production and we're very mindful as stewards of this business that we're not just taking advantage today, but also creating a long-term sustainable business."

He notes that their forecast for the consensus price - $1,000 below spot prices today, will generate around $20 billion of cash over the next five years.

Fraser says this provides the company with a unique opportunity to not just maximise value for shareholders now, but equally invest for future generations.

And they're privileged to have a very good platform within their current portfolio for reinvestment, he goes on.

One leader of growth, and the lowest-cost opportunity, is to extend life and to increase production within their own business.

At the Capital Markets Day, $2 billion worth of discretionary investments back into Gold Fields was announced to enable them to do this.

"That has enabled us to put out a guidance over the next five years to lift production from around 2.4 million ounces, which is our guidance for 2025, to around 3 million ounces by the end of the decade."

"All of that will come from the current growth options available to us, whether it's the development of our Windfall project in Canada, the ramp-up at Salares Norte (Chile)... but equally incremental ramp-up from assets like South Deep (Gauteng), Tarkwa mine (Ghana), our Australian assets..."

Gold Fields is really trying to unlock that incremental improvement within their portfolio while adding other assets, Fraser says.

To hear more from the Gold Fields CEO, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article