(Reuters) -South African mining group Gold Fields raised its interim dividend on Friday as first-half profit more than tripled from a year earlier, driven mainly by record bullion prices and increased production.
Gold Fields said it realised an average gold price of $3,281 an ounce in the first half of 2025, up 40% from the same period last year.
The Johannesburg-based miner’s gold production rose 24% to 1.136 million ounces in the first half.
The company maintained its 2025 full-year production forecast at between 2.25 million ounces and 2.45 million ounces.
Production benefited from operational improvements at Salares Norte in Chile, South Deep in South Africa, Cerro Corona in Peru and Gruyere in Australia, where output last year was impacted by bad weather and geological challenges.
The ramp-up at the new Salares Norte mine progressed well this winter after it was hampered by extreme weather last year, Gold Fields CEO Mike Fraser told Reuters.
“We learned, we did spend some additional effort on additional winterisation activities, and pleasingly, the team have actually operated very safely and effectively through the winter period,” Fraser said.
Salares Norte produced 123,600 gold-equivalent ounces in the first half of 2025 and is expected to reach commercial levels of production in the third quarter of this year, Gold Fields said. The mine is expected to produce between 325,000-375,000 ounces in 2025.
Salares Norte will have its first full year of steady-state production in 2026, when the mine is expected to produce 550,000-580,000 ounces, Gold Fields has said.
Gold Fields’ headline earnings rose to $1.027 billion in the six months to June 30, compared with $320.7 million in the same period last year.
The company declared an interim dividend of 7 rand ($0.3948) per share, up from 3 rand per share in the first half of 2024.
($1 = 17.7286 rand)
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Subhranshu Sahu and Jane Merriman)
