The company spent a whopping $A91 million on exploration in Western Australia last year and have budgeted to spend a further $86 million this year as part of a three-year strategy to boost resources and reserves.
“We are targeting to replace depletion in 2016 and aim to add additional targets to the pipeline that will give us improved flexibility and optionality over the long-term,” CEO Nick Holland said.
“Over the past decade, our exploration efforts have largely resulted in us being able to replace what has been mined and we believe there are reasonable prospects that this can be replicated in the future.”
The company said its 2015 program, solely focused on brownfields and near-mine exploration, had returned new targets on its leases.
“At St Ives, there have been prospective anomalies on the Speedway trend and some positive early indications on the Eastern Causeway,” Holland said.
“Work at Agnew/Lawlers has shown good potential at Cinderella and the adjacent Waroonga North/Kath complex could be an analogue to Kim.
“Exploration at Granny Smith has indicated further mineralisation at depth. Multiple targets have been identified across the lease at Darlot but more work needs to be done given the paucity of drilling below 200m.”
Quarterly gold production in Australia increased by 6% quarter on quarter to 263,000 ounces due to higher production at Agnew/Lawlers and St Ives, while all-in costs dropped 5% to $US819 an ounce.
The region generated net cashflow of $86 million, up from $64 million in the September quarter.
The company repaid the $US270 million acquisition cost of the Lawlers, Darlot and Granny Smith mines at the end of October, after acquiring them from Barrick Gold in late 2013.
Overall, Gold Fields produced 2.16 million ounces of gold in 2015 and has set 2016 guidance at 2.05-2.1Moz.
The Australian operations are set to produce a reduced 905,000oz due to lower grades at Granny Smith, the closure of the Athena underground at St Ives, deeper mining at Agnew and uncertain timing on access to Cinderella, and limited mine planning at Darlot pending further exploration success.
