Gold Fields declared an interim dividend of 40c per share despite a sharp drop in interim profit, with the South Deep mine’s difficulties in the period a blot on the company’s overall operating performance.
Gold Fields recorded net profit of $58.6m for the six months to end-June compared with net profit of $121m a year earlier.
Revenue was little changed at $1.33bn, while operating profit fell to $627m from $639m.
Gold output for the period increased slightly to 1.047-million ounces, with South Deep in SA and the Darlot mine in Australia producing less gold. Darlot has since been sold.
The full-year production forecast was kept steady at between 2.1-million and 2.15-million ounces, with the all-in costs for the year shooting up to a range of $1,170/oz-$1,190/oz with increased capital spending on its Gruyere project in Australia and Damang in Ghana.
South Deep’s output fell 15% to 119,300oz, sending costs soaring at the mine, which is in development. The all-in sustaining costs shot up 6% to R646,526/kg, while the all-in cost ballooned to R662,973/kg, meaning the mine posted an operating loss of R33m compared with an operating profit for R668m for the same period a year earlier.
West African output increased by 4% from the two mines in Ghana, the Cerro Corona mine in Peru boosted gold and copper output by 7%, while the Australian mines noted a 1% improvement in production.
Gold Fields noted that after the end of June it put in place a copper hedge for its Cerro Corona mine for five months to end-December, selling forward 8,250 tonnes of copper at an average floor price of $5,867 a tonne and a cap price of $6,300 a tonne.
Net debt in Gold Fields grew to $1.36bn from $1.
BDL