Top Integrated Utility Companies To Own For 2016

Top Integrated Utility Companies To Own For 2016: Gold Fields Ltd (GFI)

Gold Fields Limited (Gold Fields) is a holding company. Gold Fields is engaged in gold mining and related activities, including exploration, extraction, processing and smelting. Gold Fields is a producer of gold and holder of gold reserves in South Africa, Ghana, Australia and Peru. In Peru, Gold Fields also produces copper. Gold Fields is primarily involved in underground and surface gold and copper mining and related activities. Gold Fields also has an interest in a platinum group metal exploration project in Finland. Gold bullion is its principal product, which is produced in South Africa, Ghana and Australia and sold in South Africa and internationally. In addition, Gold Fields has gold and other precious metal exploration activities and interests in Africa, Eurasia, Australasia and the Americas. The Company holds 34.9% interest in Rand Refinery Limited.

On June 22, 2011, Gold Fields acquired the 18.9% interest of IAMGold Corporation (IAMGold), which incr eased Gold Fields interest in each of the Tarkwa and Damang gold mines from 71.1% to 90.0%. On April 15, 2011, it acquired further interest in Gold Fields La Cima S.A.A. (La Cima). During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company acquired a 21.8% interest in Timpetra Resources Limited.

KDC Operation

The KDC mine is located in the Gauteng Province of South Africa in the Far West Rand mining district, some 60 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg. KDC is consists of the Driefontein and Kloof mines. In 2011, KDC produced 1.1 million ounces of gold. KDC is consists of 13 producing shaft systems that mine different contributions from pillars and open ground, five gold plants of which two process mainly underground ore and three process mainly surface material. The KDC operation is engaged in both underground and rock dump mining. In total, during 2011, there were 13 fatalities at KDC. Of these, five were due to seismic related! falls of ground, fiv e resulted from gravity related falls of ground, two related! to tramming operations and one related to a person falling from height.

Beatrix Operation

The Beatrix operation is located in the Free State Province of South Africa, some 240 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg, near Welkom and Virginia, and consists of the Beatrix mine. Beatrix operates under mining rights covering a total area of approximately 16,800 hectares. Beatrix is an underground only operation. Beatrix has four shaft systems, with five ventilation shafts to provide additional up-cast and down-cast ventilation capacity and is serviced by two metallurgical plants. It is a shallow to intermediate-depth mining operation, at depths between 700 meters and 2,200 meters below surface. In 2011, Beatrix produced 0.347 million ounces of gold. Beatrix is managed as three operational sections: the North Section, the South Section and the West Section. The Beatrix mine is engaged in underground and surface mining. It had five fatalities at Beatrix, in 2011.

South Deep Operation

South Deep is situated adjacent to KDC, in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. South Deep is a capital project and remains a developing mine. South Deep is engaged in underground mining and is consists of one metallurgical plant and two operating shaft systems, the older South Shaft complex and the newer Twin Shaft complex. The South Shaft complex includes a main shaft and three sub-vertical (SV) shafts, two of which are operational. The Twin Shaft complex consists of a single-barrel shaft and an adjacent bratticed ventilation shaft, or the Twins Main Ventilation Shaft. While the Twin Shaft complex forms the center of production and capital development activities, opening up, equipping and diamond drilling operations are being conducted in the South Shaft area in order to access new mining areas.

The South Shaft complex operates to a depth of 2,650 meters below surface and the T! win Shaft! complex operates t o a depth of 2,995 meters below surface. In 2011, South Deep! produced! 0.273 million ounces of gold. During 2011, the South Deep plant treated an average of 0.2 million tons per month (excluding Kloof mine toll treatment) consisted of an average of 167,000 tons per month of underground material and 31,000 tons per month of surface material from South Deep.

Ghana Operations

Gold Fields Ghana Limited (Gold Fields Ghana), which holds the interest in the Tarkwa mine. The Tarkwa mine is located in southwestern Ghana, about 300 kilometers by road west of Accra. The Tarkwa mine consists of several open pit operations on the original Tarkwa property and the adjacent southern portion of the property, together with a heap leach facility, referred to as the North Plant Heap Leach Facility. The capacity of the facility is 3.3 million tons per annum. The total treatment capacity including the North Plant, the High Pressure Grinding Roll Facility and the carbon in leach (CIL) Plant is estimated to be 24 million tons per annum. The Tarkwa mine operates under mining leases with a total area of approximately 20,800 hectares, the entirety of which are surface operations. In 2011, Tarkwa produced 0.717 million ounces of gold, of which 0.576 million ounces were attributable to Gold Fields.

Abosso Goldfields Limited (Abosso), which owns the interest in the Damang mine. The Damang deposits are located in the Wassa West District in southwestern Ghana approximately 330 kilometers by road west of Accra and approximately 30 kilometers by road northeast of the Tarkwa mine. The Damang mine consists of an open pit operation with a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and CIL processing plant. Damang operates under a mining lease with a total area of approximately 8,100 hectares. In 2011, the Damang mine produced 0.218 million ounces of gold, of which 0.175 million ounces.

Australia Operations

Gold Fields owns the St. Ives and Agnew gold mini! ng operat! ions in Australia. St. Ives i s located 80 kilometers south of Kalgoorlie and 20 kilometer! s south o! f Kambalda, straddling Lake Lefroy in Western Australia. It holds exploration licenses, prospecting licenses and mining leases covering a total area of approximately 97,700 hectares. St. Ives is both a surface and underground operation, with a number of open pits, four operating underground mines, a metallurgical carbon in pulp (CIP) plant and a heap leach facility. In 2011, St. Ives produced 0.465 million ounces of gold. St. Ives sources production from a variety of underground and surface operations. Exploration activities are continuing with a view to extending the life of the mine.

Production at the Argo underground mine continued throughout, during 2011. Greater Revenge Complex operation utilizes open pit and lake sediment mining methods. Cutbacks of the Agamemnon and Mars Minotaur Link pits were mined, during 2011. The Belleisle deposit lies in the Greater Revenge Area adjacent to the depleted Mars open pit. The final 20,000 ounces were mined from Belleisl e, in 2011 and the mine was closed, in May 2011. Cave Rocks is located approximately six kilometers to the west of the Kambalda West township. The Leviathan open pit is based on the expansion of a pre-existing open pit located approximately two kilometers southeast of the Lefroy processing plant. The mine utilizes conventional truck and shovel mining practices.

Construction at the Athena mine reached commercial levels of production, in July 2011. The first ore extraction from Hamlet occurred, in November 2011. As of December 31, 2011, Athena ahd a life of mine of four years and Hamlet had a life of seven years with prospects of extensions to those lives. Underground mining activities at Belleisle, Cave Rocks and Argo were undertaken under an agreement with Carlowen Proprietary Ltd, which trades as GBF Underground Mining (GBF). Leighton Contractors Proprietary Limited (Leighton) performs the surface mining at St. I! ves under! an alliance agreement. Leighton provid es employees and equipment for mining ore and waste from the! open pit! mines. Agnew is located 23 kilometers west of Leinster, approximately 375 kilometers north of Kalgoorlie and 630 kilometers northwest of Perth, Western Australia.

The Company holds exploration licenses, prospecting licenses and mining leases covering a total area of approximately 54,000 hectares. Agnew operated both an underground and the Songvang open pit, in 2011. Underground mining is conducted from the Waroonga Underground Complex which consists of multiple ore zones. Agnew has one metallurgical plant. Agnew is serviced by sealed road infrastructure to the mine gate. In 2011, the operation produced 0.194 million ounces of gold. The principal production source, in 2011, at Agnew was the Waroonga underground mining complex. The northern cutback of the Songvang open pit commenced, in 2011. The Waroonga Underground Complex includes underground mining of the Kim South, Rajah and Main Lode ore bodies. The mining method involves longhole open stoping with paste fi lling. Waroonga underground performance averaged 52,000 tons per month, in 2011.

Peru Operation

Gold Fields owns 98.5% economic interest in the Cerro Corona mine through its shareholding in La Cima. Cerro Corona mine forms part of a porphyry copper-gold deposit situated within the Hualgayoc Mining District in northern Peru. It is located in the part of the Western Cordillera of the Andes, in northern Peru, close to the headwaters of the Atlantic continental basin. Cerro Corona is located approximately 80 kilometers by road north of the City of Cajamarca. Cerro Corona holds mining leases covering a total area of approximately 1,600 hectares and the project was developed over an area of 940 hectares. In 2011, the operation produced 0.161 million ounces of gold and 38,641 tons of copper for a total of 0.383 million gold equivalent ounces, of which 0.159 million ounces of gold and 38,061 tons of ! copper fo! r a total of 0.377 million gold equivalent ounces were attributable to Gold Fields.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Mining operations have long been subject to the vagaries of strikes and violence in South Africa. Harmony Gold (NYSE: HMY  ) suspended its operations atKusasalethu because of security concerns, Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI  ) lost 35,000 ounces of production and had its credit rating reduced by Standard & Poor's because of labor unrest (and reduced its full-year production forecast by 200,000 ounces), and Xstrata has had to halt activity several times as a result of union violence.

source from Top Stocks To Buy For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/top-integrated-utility-companies-to-own-for-2016-2.html