Gold Fields’ Au-some achievements

Gold Fields is tracking well against the 2030 environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets for its six priority ESG areas – three of them related to its people and stakeholders and the other three to the environmental impacts of its mines.

The Australian Mining Review speaks with Gold Fields executive vice president of sustainable development Mariette Steyn about the company’s notable ESG achievements across its St Ives, Agnew, Granny Smith and Gruyere joint venture (JV) gold mines in WA.

What are the latest updates to Gold Field’s ESG targets – and why?

MS: Gold Fields is targeting a stronger representation of women across our workforce, with a 30% target by 2030. We are getting close to achieving this, with 25% of women in our workforce, 27% women in leadership positions and 54% women in core roles. We are also committed to implementing all 21 of the recommendations proposed by Elizabeth Broderick & Co in its Workplace Culture review to support its Respectful Workplaces program and our diversity targets.

Gold Fields works closely with our host communities to deliver programs that will make a meaningful difference. We are aiming for 30% of total value created to benefit our host communities. In 2023, we delivered US$1.09b of stakeholder value directly to our host communities across the globe, equalling 33% of total value.

In 2023, renewable energy accounted for 17% of Gold Fields’ electricity. Across our sites across the world, Gold Fields is implementing various decarbonisation activities to reduce our emissions, with targets of 50% absolute emissions and 30% net emissions reduction from 2016 baseline (Scope 1+2), 10% Scope 3 emissions reduction from 2022 baseline; and net zero emissions by 2050. In 2023, we achieved 12% absolute and 4% net Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction against baseline, and 3% Scope 3 emissions reduction against baseline.

Gold Fields is also on track with our commitments to tailings management. We are continuing to collaborate with industry on the commingling of waste streams, monitoring technologies and tailings reductions. We have rolled out a new tailings storage facility (TSF) Management Standard and completed a three-yearly global independent review of our TSFs. Gold Fields’ target is to conform to the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management for all TSFs by Q3 2025, and we are pleased to report this program is on track.

One of our key ESG pillars is water stewardship, with a 2030 target to have 80% of all water recycled or reused, as well as a 45% reduction in freshwater use from a 2018 baseline. In 2023, we saw 74% of water recycled or reused, and a 39% reduction in freshwater use.

How are the Australian operations tracking? Step us through the renewable energy projects happening at each site.

MS: Gold Fields is delivering WA’s largest renewable energy project at a mine site, investing almost $300m at our St Ives operation. Gold Fields will construct a 42MW wind farm consisting of seven wind turbines, a 35MW, 60,000 panel solar farm and 132kV transmission lines to help power our St Ives gold mine. Set to be operational by the end of 2025, the project will deliver 73% of St Ives’ energy requirements and reduce the mine’s emissions by approximately 50% by 2030. The St Ives renewables project is a first for Gold Fields as we will manage and build the project in-house, leveraging the exceptional expertise of our people and those that support us.

At Granny Smith, we are expanding our solar power capacity. The site will now have a total of 18MW of solar capacity – an increase of 11MW of power, as well as additional capacity through an expanded battery energy storage system. Upon completion, the expansion will enable 21% of Granny Smith’s energy requirements to be generated by renewable sources. The solar farm expansion comes ahead of Gold Fields conducting a pre-feasibility study, investigating how it could go on to generate 75% of Granny Smith’s energy requirements from renewable sources, including increased solar, a larger battery, and a wind farm later in the decade.

We also continue to recognise the benefits from the hybrid renewable power plant, commissioned in 2019/2020 at our Agnew site which included solar, wind turbine, gas generator, battery power storage and diesel back-up power solutions and the solar and battery plant that we installed at the Gruyere mine with our joint-venture partner Gold Road Resources in 2022.

Can you share some of Gold Field’s future ESG strategies, policies and programs?

MS: A strong focus of our ESG work is to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries at our mines and projects as we strongly believe that a fatality-free mining business is possible. We have initiated an independent review (being conducted by DSS+, formerly Du Pont) of our Group’s safety culture, processes, systems and practices. The review, which commenced in February 2024, is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024, and will identify opportunities to accelerate our safety journey and standardise the safety approach across our business.

Our commitment to safety extends to psychological health and wellbeing, which is key to building safe workplaces. We are continuing to progress the implementation of the 21 recommendations of the Elizabeth Broderick and Co independent review and will conduct a follow-up review in 2026.

We have also announced that as part of Gold Fields’ extensive strategic review in 2025, we will be reviewing all our ESG commitments and 2030 targets for our six priority areas and possibly extending these to 2035. This is particularly relevant for our decarbonisation journey, where a longer-term commitment is essential if we are to achieve our ultimate goal of net Zero by 2050.