GOLD Fields CEO, Nick Holland, said there were some “green shoots” at the firm’s long-beleaguered South African mine, South Deep, but added that the mine had to improve its production of gold in order to finally become a success.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, republished by Fin24, Holland said: “We are seeing some green shoots in a number of areas, better performance in a number of our operators. But we need to increase the volumes, if we increase the volumes the unit cost comes down because of the high fixed costs in the business”.
The mine has absorbed more than R30bn in investment over nearly 20 years of development. But each of its owners have been unable to finally make the business work.
The company has a new target of mining 500,000 ounces of gold a year at South Deep by 2022. If progress toward that goal falters the company may have to reassess its entire strategy for the mine, Holland told Bloomberg News.
“As things stand today, there is a reasonable prospect we will get there,” he said. “It’s another two to three years re-investing before we see the benefits. But we wouldn’t want another five to 10 years of year and year having the same issue. Clearly we have to see results and progress towards our targets,” he said.
