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across all three mines.”
Gold Fields acquired the three Australian
assets, all located within WA’s famous
central gold producing region, following an
earlier corporate restructure that saw it split-
off its conventional underground mines in
South Africa into a separate company. With
its South African interests greatly reduced,
Australia now represents 43 per cent of
Gold Fields’ global production capacity.
The three newer mines join Gold Fields’
existing West Australian assets, Agnew
and St Ives, to give the company a local
production capacity of one million ounces
per annum. Collectively, the mines employ
about 2,150 people of which a higher-
than-average 15 per cent are female.
Last year, falling gold prices presented
an opportune moment for Gold Fields
to acquire underperforming assets at a
bargain price. As relatively small mines
within Barrick’s massive global portfolio,
Weston believes offloading the three mines
to Gold Fields made commercial sense.
“In the first half of 2013, the gold price
dropped 30 per cent and any company
selling assets had to change their
expectations as to what they could get,”
Weston says.
“The opportunity arose whereby we
could pick up three of Barrick’s assets
for around US$270m, and in my view,
you couldn’t have built any one of those
assets for US$270m. So we got what we
consider a very good deal.
“Barrick has good operating systems
and a good operating culture, but we felt
we could operate these three mines more
efficiently; certainly we could give them
more care and attention. Furthermore, we
could exploit synergies with our existing
operations in WA, at Agnew and St Ives.”
INTEGRATING GOLD FIELDS’ DNA
Like any strong employer in the resource
industry, Gold Fields operates around several
core company values: safety, responsibility,
honesty, respect, innovation and delivery.
But what really resonated with the new
employees was an education program
on Gold Fields’ ‘DNA’. Weston explains
this is about the company’s strategic
objectives, commitment to stakeholders,
and its operating model and structure.
Underground at Darlot in central WA
Granny Smith gold mine by night
RESOURCE
PEOPLE
SUMMER 2014-15
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COVER STORY
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