more goldfields info
- Near mine exploration success at St Ives, Agnew and Damang.
- Three greenfields projects at the advanced drilling stage.
Tommy McKeith
Executive Vice President: Head of Exploration and Business Development
Gold Fields’ growth strategy is focused on creating our own high quality gold opportunities through an aggressive exploration programme. By leveraging our technical excellence in area selection and programme execution, the Exploration Group aims to improve the likelihood of success and significantly reduce project development timelines.
Our strategy is based on a measured and thoughtful approach when adding new projects to the portfolio. The aim is to strike the appropriate balance between size, quality and the various risks associated with the opportunity. These tradeoffs will continually be re-assessed as a project advances through the development pipeline to ensure its economic potential is commensurate with its technical, commercial, geopolitical, social and environmental risks.
Near mine exploration around our operations in Australia, Ghana and Peru is a priority for our Group. During the year, we advanced the Athena and Hamlet discoveries at St Ives to the feasibility stage and advanced exploration opportunities at all our sites. Near mine exploration is focused on unlocking the option value of our international gold operations and providing a robust platform for regional growth. This is reflected in positive growth trends in annual resource and reserve declarations.
Most of our greenfields exploration is organised to provide the growth pipeline for our international regions: South America, West Africa and Australasia. During the year, Gold Fields advanced this portfolio to the extent where we now have advanced drilling projects in Peru and Mali. Initial drilling projects in Australia and Chile are showing significant potential and we hope to progress these during the next financial year.
Positioning Gold Fields for the longer term, we are establishing exploration activities in a few key prospective geological belts in new regions, away from our existing operations. During the year, the Talas Project in Kyrgyzstan progressed to the advanced drilling stage and continues to demonstrate promise. New exploration search spaces can also arise through the application of new geological concepts and technologies, which we have employed at our initial drilling projects in Canada located within a supposedly mature exploration terrain in British Columbia.
Our objectives are carefully considered in the current environment, and include:
- Developing a robust pipeline of quality greenfields opportunities capable of generating a Gold Fields development project every two to three years; the goal is to establish a steady state greenfields pipeline by 2014;
- Establishing Gold Fields’ presence in select regions around the world with the aim of establishing a dominant position in areas containing the most promising emerging and prospective gold belts; and
- Providing Gold Fields’ international operating regions with a growth pipeline to achieve the targeted production goal of one million ounces a year from each region through exploration success and value accretive business development.
To achieve these goals, Gold Fields has assembled a team of experienced and motivated professionals. Gold Fields has stated that if we cannot mine safely, we will not mine. This principle applies to the exploration team: if we cannot explore safely, we will not explore. We continually strive to provide a safe and healthy working environment at all our projects with the ongoing aim of achieving zero safety related incidents and accidents. From an environmental perspective, the Exploration Group utilises industry best practices that minimise our footprint wherever possible.
To demonstrate this commitment to safety and the environment, the Gold Fields Exploration Group has achieved and will strive to maintain ISO14001 and OHSAS18001 certification at its offices and projects around the world. As a team, we know that the Exploration Group is the first ambassador of Gold Fields in a community. Consequently we always strive to leave a positive and lasting legacy. Our stakeholders can rely on Gold Fields to make positive contributions and be constructive members of the communities in which we work.