The curse of South Deep haunts Gold Fields
Gold Fields hopes the restructuring of the operation will put it back in the black — but some investors are sceptical
South Deep, Gold Fields’ last remaining SA asset, has hurt it yet again. The company and its long- suffering investors hope it will be for the very last time. In its results for the year ended December 2018, released last week, Gold Fields said production across the global gold mining group slipped 3%, while revenues were 7% lower. Losses for the year slid to $348.2m, compared with $19m the year before. Much of it has to do with South Deep. Though it has one of the world’s largest gold deposits, the mine hasn’t reached production targets for a long time and has proved to be a black hole for Gold Fields cash, guzzling about R100m a month. The mine was massively restructured in 2018 — a painful and costly process — and Gold Fields expects to see the benefits, soon. This involved retrenching 1,100 employees and as many as 500 contractors. It also resulted in the closure of some lower-grade areas. "It is the first time we’ve done something like this at South Deep and we believe it’s set...
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