The gold mining firm saw how the first-half of 2023 earnings have declined, as well as announcing its CFO’s departure.
Gold Fields Limited announced that the net income for the first half of 2023 declined, as well as its CFO since 2008 is retiring early.
Gold Fields Limited announced that their company’s first-half net income has declined 10.2% year over year to $457.8 million. Gold Fields Limited’s headline earnings fell to $0.52 per share from $0.58 in last year’s first half. Gold Fields Limited also saw its adjusted free cash flow drop significantly to $140 million for the period, which is down from the $293 million in last year’s first half.
Gold Fields Limited’s first-half attributable gold equivalent production has declined to 1.15 million ounces, again in line with the guidance but down from 1.2 Moz a year earlier. Management has noted that the operating environment has remained challenging during the period, with elevated mining cost inflation and strong competition for skills in their key mining jurisdictions presented significant headwinds.
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Gold Fields Limited also announced that Paul Schmidt, the company’s CFO since 2008, will retire early and has agreed to continue his role until the Board has found a suitable replacement.
However, with that reiteration, there were a couple of negative adjustments for specific mines, indicating that Gold Fields Limited could arrive at the lower end of the guidance range. Firstly, in the Gruyere operation, production is expected to be 320 thousand ounces to 350 thousand ounces, which is down from 450 thousand ounces to 370 thousand ounces previously, which the costs will likely be at the higher end of the guidance range of Australian $1,540/oz to $1,660/oz; secondly, in the South Deep location, Gold Fields Limited says that unstable ground conditions and combined with skill shortage have negatively impacted the production in the first half. South deep is now expected to be 321.5 thousand ounces at the cost of $1,356/oz. South Deep operations are now expected to achieve its steady-state production rate of 380 thousand ounces in the second half of 2025 rather than at the end of the year 2024, as was previously anticipated.
However, all of these are relatively minor issues that does not necessarily break Gold Field Limited’s long-term story, but it also was not surprising that shares are pulling back.