Gold Fields pays US$320 million to government in taxes

Gold Fields Limited paid US$320.2 million to government in various taxes last year, Joshua Mortoti, Acting Executive Vice President, Gold Fields West Africa, has said.

The Tarkwa and Damang Mines, in 2021, paid US$244 million in corporate taxes and royalties, US$48.2 dividend to the government while Pay-as-you- earn (PAYE) contributions stood at US$28m,” he told journalists at a media engagement session in Accra on Thursday, January 27, 2022.

“We make massive contribution to this economy, and we hope to continue to do that in many years to come,” Mr Mortoti said.

Mr Mortoti said in accordance with the company’s commitment to create an enduring value beyond mining, Gold Fields had since 2004, invested US$84m in socio-economic development of host communities.

He said the company would constantly work to ensure that host communities benefited from the operations of the company in the areas of education, agriculture, and health among other sectors.

“We constructed the 33km Tarkwa-Damang road, Awudua road, UMaT-Nana Angu II road, bridges, upgraded the Huni-Valley health centre among other projects. Over 2,000 scholarships have also been given,” he said.

Mr Mortoti said the Company had ceded part of its concession in support of “responsible” small-scale mining, adding that Gold Fields was ready to support the development of framework to support that sector.

On the issue of women empowerment, Mr Mortoti said the Company would prioritise the recruitment of women this year in a bid to increase the percentage of women employees from eleven per cent to 12 per cent.

Mr Chris Griffith, Chief Executive Officer, Gold Fields, said the Company had targeted that by 2030, 30 per cent of its total value would stay with host communities as well as achieve 55 per cent host community employment.

He said Gold Fields had targeted to reduce its emission by 50 per cent by 2030 and had earmarked $1.2bn towards various projects to achieve that target.

“In Damang and Tarkwa, we have installed 95MW of electricity generation capacity to increase supply reliability, and we have reduced net emissions by 39 per cent,” he said.

The Company had not recorded any fatalities at its mines in the last decade and targeted zero fatalities, zero serious injuries, and zero serious environmental incidents as part of its 2030 targets.

Gold Fields is a globally diversified producer of gold with 10 operating mines and projects in Australia, Ghana, Peru, Chile, and South Africa.

The Tarkwa, Damang, and Asanko mines in West Africa constitute 35 per cent of the Company’s total Group production.

It has been operating in Ghana for 29 years, with the Tarkwa Mine as its flagship mine and the single largest gold producer in Ghana.