Harmony Gold Mining / HMY (NYSE), HAR (SA) und Gold Fields / GFI

    Ein ungenannter Analyst sieht den Grund für Harmonys Übernahmeangebot in den sehr ernsten Problemen, die HAR bei anhaltender Randstärke hat.


    ....
    "Probably the most pressing question facing South African gold mining companies is how to adjust to the current low rand/kg gold-price scenario," Harmony Gold said in its December quarter earnings statement. Its widely believed, it added, that the rand could continue to be strong for at least another 12 months, driven by the weak dollar.


    It's for this reason, according to one analyst, that Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY) Chief Executive Bernard Swanepoel "had no choice" but to table his all-paper bid for South African peer Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI) on Oct. 18 last year.


    "He's in serious, serious trouble at Harmony and he needed better-quality assets to see him through a period of a lowish rand/kg gold price," said the analyst, who didn't want to be named.


    Cash-flow from Gold Fields' better-quality South African and international assets could help subsidize Harmony's marginal operations, the analyst added.


    On a cash-operating cost basis - a metric used by South African gold companies to compare their costs, which strips out items including the cost of capital - Gold Fields is estimated to need a rand/kg gold price of ZAR72,000 to break even, while Harmony needs a rand/kg price of ZAR80,000.


    But Harmony Executive Director Ferdi Dippenaar dismisses this view, saying the company made the bid for Gold Fields because its executives reckon they can create value for both companies' shareholders, "not because the company has any cash-flow problem." Gold Fields is bitterly contesting the bid.
    ...
    Aus:
    FOCUS: S Africa Gold Companies Pushed Into Survival Mode
    http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050329/15/3rjq2.html

    APOCALYPSE NOW ! :D Reiter sind es nicht !


    Vielleicht wird es eine asiatische zweite lektion oder ohrfeige, dieses mal,, mit Fiat Dollars. ???? :D


    Relax 8), wenn die alle minen schliessen,dann gibt es eine grosse knappheit an gold und das wird die spotpreise hochjagen, und so lassen sie die irgendwie am leben mit ihrer manipulation.
    So oder so, I think its a big stunt or bluff !



    I guess its bottom fishing time, :rolleyes:


    Auf alle faelle sind die pferde und hippos bald in Aufruhr. !


    Ich habe mein ohr auf den boden gelegt und hoer was kommen,
    I'm a Cowboy !! :D :D


    Mal schaun ! :rolleyes:

    There is no harmony with the Goldfields Raid - IMHO!


    Zwei einbeinige hundert Meter Sprinter stellen neuen negativ Rekord auf. DRD ist zumindest ehrlich bei ihren Finanzproblemen.


    Mbeki torn between two alternatives - Zimbabwe type armageddon or live with the devil. His route will delineate the rout.


    Cheers

    GATA Dispatch:




    By Jackie Range
    Dow Jones Newswires
    Monday, March 28, 2005


    http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050329/15/3rjq2.html


    LONDON -- Drilling deep underground in dark, hot, and wet conditions,
    South Africa's gold miners may have little idea their industry is
    facing its biggest challenge yet miles above their heads.


    While rival companies with dollar-based costs bask in a high gold
    price -- in December it reached a 16-year peak -- South Africa's gold
    miners have been hit by the rand's strength against the dollar and
    rising costs. Taking into account all their costs, half of South
    Africa's gold mines are currently unprofitable.

    As a result, gold industry executives are taking some drastic steps
    to give their business a future. Consolidation, diversification, cost-
    cutting, mining higher grades, and closures are all on the menu.


    "We're all playing a sort of game of last man standing," said Mark
    Wellesley-Wood, chairman of DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY), a Johannesburg-
    based junior gold miner with assets in South Africa, Papua New
    Guinea, and Fiji.


    The South African gold industry is in terminal decline. In 1970 it
    produced 70% of the world's gold, but by 2003 it accounted for just
    14.5% of global output. Now, although South Africa is still the
    world's largest producer of gold -- the industry contributes 2% of
    the country's gross domestic product -- the prevailing economic
    environment is leaving its key businesses scrambling to survive.


    Over the last three years, the price in rand of a kilogram of gold
    has dropped 22% to reach 84,990 rand ($1=ZAR6.228) a kilo March 24.
    Rand strength has outpaced the rise in the U.S. dollar gold price,
    explains Williams de Broe Mining analyst Alex Wood. So while South
    African miners have been paid more for their gold, their costs have
    grown proportionately faster -- erasing gains.


    Wood says margins have been squeezed by above-inflation wage
    increases and higher outlays on energy, among other costs.


    "Probably the most pressing question facing South African gold mining
    companies is how to adjust to the current low rand/kg gold-price
    scenario," Harmony Gold said in its December quarter earnings
    statement. Its widely believed, it added, that the rand could
    continue to be strong for at least another 12 months, driven by the
    weak dollar.


    It's for this reason, according to one analyst, that Harmony Gold
    Mining Co. (HMY) Chief Executive Bernard Swanepoel "had no choice"
    but to table his all-paper bid for South African peer Gold Fields
    Ltd. (GFI) on Oct. 18 last year.


    "He's in serious, serious trouble at Harmony and he needed better-
    quality assets to see him through a period of a lowish rand/kg gold
    price," said the analyst, who didn't want to be named.


    Cash-flow from Gold Fields' better-quality South African and
    international assets could help subsidize Harmony's marginal
    operations, the analyst added.


    On a cash-operating cost basis -- a metric used by South African gold
    companies to compare their costs, which strips out items including
    the cost of capital -- Gold Fields is estimated to need a rand/kg
    gold price of ZAR72,000 to break even, while Harmony needs a rand/kg
    price of ZAR80,000.


    But Harmony Executive Director Ferdi Dippenaar dismisses this view,
    saying the company made the bid for Gold Fields because its
    executives reckon they can create value for both companies'
    shareholders, "not because the company has any cash-flow problem."
    Gold Fields is bitterly contesting the bid.

    Also driving consolidation and corporate change is black economic
    empowerment, the South African government's initiative to enable
    those disadvantaged by apartheid to fully participate in the
    economy. "Empowerment players emerge, take different assets from
    players, and take those companies forward," explains Roger Baxter,
    chief economist with South Africa's Chamber of Mines, an industry
    lobby group.


    South African gold miners have also moved to protect profit margins
    by diversifying gold businesses geographically.


    World number-two gold producer, AngloGold Ashanti (AU), has spread
    its business over four continents, with 21 units, only seven of which
    are in South Africa.


    J.P. Morgan has cited AngloGold as its top investment pick among
    South African gold miners. Analyst Steve Shepherd says the reasons
    are twofold: "It is geographically diversified, therefore not as
    exposed to the rand/gold price, and ... overall its assets are the
    lowest cost of the South African gold producers."


    DRDGold has also pursued a diversification strategy, spreading the
    company's asset base into Asia. "We'd have gone bust last year" if
    the company hadn't diversified, according to CEO Wellesley-Wood.


    Some gold miners have also sought to protect profits through cost-
    cutting measures. For instance, in the last nine months, Harmony has
    axed 4,000 workers and 4,000 contractors. Numbers employed in the
    industry overall fell 10% between 2000 and 2003.


    Baxter, of the Chamber of Mines, points out that many of the job
    reductions have come through "natural attrition" rather than more-
    expensive redundancy programs. Technology and productivity
    improvements also play a part in falling employment numbers, Baxter
    added.


    Still, there's "a lot of fat to cut" at Gold Fields' Driefontein and
    Kloof mines in particular, an analyst said. Gold Fields employs only
    around 45% of its labor force in revenue-driving, rock-breaking jobs,
    compared with Harmony's almost 60%, according to one South African
    gold mining analyst. Another analyst reckons Gold Fields' costs could
    be cut by 20% to emulate Harmony's leaner cost structure.


    Attacking higher-grade areas containing richer seams of gold within
    an existing mine, is a method already in action at Gold Fields and is
    employed across the industry to combat the weak price environment.
    Gold Fields is using this approach now on loss-making shafts at its
    Beatrix mine, in the Free State Province.


    But while companies move drilling teams to different parts of mines,
    closure of either shafts or mines is a last resort. Reopening them is
    prohibitively expensive and companies loose the flexibility of being
    able to move back into lower-grade areas of the mine if the rand/gold
    price strengthens.


    To combat the difficult price environment, however, Gold Fields,
    Harmony, and DRDGold have already closed shafts.


    Most recently DRDGold announced the provisional liquidation of its
    Buffelsfontein Gold Mines Ltd. business. Hit by a severe earthquake
    on March 9, this mine was already loss making -- contributing 75% of
    the company's losses. One Johannesburg-based analyst estimates that a
    rand/kg gold price of ZAR120,000 would be needed before this mine
    could operate at a profit.


    There could be more staff cuts to come at Harmony's Free State
    operations, meanwhile, unless the company can persuade South Africa's
    National Union of Mineworkers to introduce a new working practice.
    Under the practice known as continuous operations, or CONOPS, the
    mine is in production every day of the year, rather than the current
    industry standard of 273 days a year.


    This situation appears to be worsening, with the union at that mine
    electing to strike over a number of issues, including the
    introduction of CONOPS.


    But Harmony's Dippenaar says CONOPS is just one of the methods which
    can be used to make those shafts profitable. Harmony also uses other
    measures such as cutting expenditure on consumables, mining higher-
    grade areas and restructuring labor on the shafts.


    "It is about restructuring and downscaling for profitability at those
    operations and not about ultimate closure," Dippenaar said.


    ----------------------------------------------------


    Drooling along ...

    Much Ado about nothing

    aber wenn man sich HAR ./. GFI streiten will........................



    gogh



    Aus BUSINESS-REPORT vom 30.03.05



    Harmony backtracks on size of its gold reserves
    =====================================


    Harmony Gold Mining, which has made a R32.6 billion hostile bid for bigger rival Gold Fields, said it incorrectly classified 8.3 million ounces of gold as reserves this month.


    Harmony reclassified the amount as inferred resources rather than the inferred reserves it called them in a March 10 statement.


    Harmony made the change to "remain compliant with the guidelines attached to the South African code for reporting of mineral resources", known as the Samrec code, it said last week.


    Gold Fields, which pointed out the error, has attacked inconsistencies in Harmony's reporting of its reserves, which range from 39 million ounces in a consultant's report a year ago to 62 million ounces in its offer document.


    Harmony's latest calculation puts reserves at 52.1 million ounces.


    "It was an honest to goodness mistake," Harmony marketing director Ferdi Dippenaar said yesterday.


    "Reserve was a term that slipped through."


    Gold that can be profitably mined is termed "reserves", while "resources" refer to gold in the ground that may be too costly to extract.


    The 8.3 million ounces of gold would be worth $3.5 billion at yesterday's price of $427 (R2 710) an ounce.


    Gold Fields, the second-largest gold producer locally, on March 17 sent a letter of complaint to the JSE Securities Exchange and to the Securities Regulation Panel.


    The letter said Harmony broke Samrec's rules on March 10 by reporting the 8.3 million ounces as reserves.


    "Harmony's stated declared and audited reserves play a key role in how Gold Fields' shareholders value the hostile bid ratio," Terence Goodlace, Gold Fields' senior vice-president of strategic planning, said in the letter.


    "In this regard, Harmony has proved evasive and misleading when announcing their reserves position publicly."


    The Securities Regulation Panel on March 23 sent a note to Harmony's lawyers asking them "as a matter of urgency" to tell Harmony to "comply with the relevant provisions of the Samrec code if the contentions made by Gold Fields are in fact correct".


    A copy of the letter was obtained by Bloomberg News.


    Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said his company also received a copy of the panel's letter.


    Harmony has not yet released an audited statement of its gold reserves, compiled by independent SRK Consulting.


    The report, which was to be released in December, was "in the process of being filed" with the JSE, Harmony said on March 24.


    The panel said the delay in releasing the reserve report was "unacceptable" and "may be having the effect of creating a false market in Harmony's shares".


    Harmony would include the 8.3 million ounces in its mine plans, Dippenaar said.


    Harmony shares fell R1.67 to close at R50.33, while Gold Fields fell R1.40 to close at R73.35. The gold mining sector declined 1.39 percent.


    Meanwhile, Sapa reports that strike negotiations between Harmony Gold and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) stalled yesterday because Harmony was "not being serious", NUM general secretary Gwede Mantashe said.


    "They [Harmony] sent some junior officer with a written letter to read to NUM. The problem with dealing with a messenger is that you can't engage," Mantashe said.


    Management and the union will meet again today.

    Soso - 3,5 Mrd USD sind also Harmony "slipped through". Da wundert´s auch nicht, daß die unabhängige Reservenabschätzung immer noch nicht fertig ist. Zumindest gibt´s von dem Wertpapier-Regulierungsgremium eins auf die Nuß.


    Hauptsache, Harmony´s Übernahmeangebot wird nicht "durchrutschen".
    Und die Skalps von Swiny und Ferdi flattern bald in der Luft, wie von Mineweb angekündigt. :D

    Wer risikofreudig ist und noch an GFI oder HMY glaubt das sie den sturm ueberstehen fuer den bietet sich im moment eine guenstige kaufangelegenheit, meiner meinung.


    Bald werden Insider die aktien alle guenstig aufsammeln und die medien wieder hochreden.


    Swanepoel und Ferdi, deren Koepfe sollen rollen !


    Gruss


    Eldo

    Auch dort geht es nun los !


    Gold Fields Limited - National Union of Mineworkers to strike at Gold Fields


    MEDIA RELEASENational Union of Mineworkers to strike at Gold Fields despite existingagreement and dialogue processJohannesburg, 30 March 2005: Gold Fields Limited (GFI: JSE and NYSE) regrets toannounce that it has been informed by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)that its members intend proceeding with industrial action at all Gold Fieldsoperations in South Africa, commencing at 18:00 this evening.The industrial action purports to relate to a dispute over living outallowances. In terms of an existing agreement with the NUM the current livingout allowance is set at R706 per month, and is increased annually in accordancewith the percentage increase granted in respect of wages. The NUM is demanding a70% increase in the living out allowance to R1,200 per month.Gold Fields has received legal advice that the proposed industrial action willbe unprotected as there is an existing agreement in place regulating the quantumof the living out allowance as well as the mechanism for increases associatedwith this allowance.As a consequence Gold Fields will apply for an urgent interdict against theproposed industrial action on the grounds that it believes the action to beunprotected in terms of the Labour Relations Act, due to the existence of thecurrent agreement.The proposed industrial action will affect 28,974 NUM members of whom 6,871receive living out allowances.ends

    "Die RSA-Tiefminen haben im Gegensatz


    zu allen anderen Weltecken Reserven


    bis Oberkante Oberlippe (ad infinitum)"


    Diese Reservenbehauptung reicht für die Reservendefinition nach dem SAMREC Standard leider nicht aus.


    Da brauchen wir schon den unabhängigen Bericht einer "competent person".


    Ob Harmony´s ökonomisch abbaubare Reserven wirklich so groß sind, oder sinds doch eher nur Ressourcen? Wir werdens bald wissen.


    Zur Info: Harmony´s letzter Competent Persons Report (CPR) hat die Reserven mit 41 Mill. Uz geschätzt, während HAR im letzten Jahresbericht 62 Mio Uz geltend macht. Die Differenz kann HAR nicht plausibel machen, der angekündigte neue CPR ist seit Monaten überfällig.


    GFI meint, in einer ordentlich geführten FIrma sollte es kein Problem darstellen, den Bericht innerhalb von zwei Monaten fertigstellen zu lassenf: "An exercise that we believe should have taken no more than two months to complete in a properly run mining company has now taken a significantly longer period of time"


    Reserven GFI lt. Jahresbericht : SA 60,6 Mio Uz, Gesamt 80 Mio Uz.

    Teilübersetzung weiter unten.


    Miner’s Glory Days Are Over


    By Kathleen Body and Ian Spence
    30 Mar 2005 at 07:09 AM EST


    THE battle to determine the correct value of Harmony is a real one. At stake is the level playing field that Gold Fields shareholders need to ensure fair value in any deal with Harmony. For that to occur we need to see the real picture: take out the spin and propaganda against Gold Fields by Harmony — poor management and so on — which is all unsupported by today’s facts.


    Rather, Harmony’s rationale for the merger in the offer document more appropriately applies to itself, as Harmony seems to have been losing control of its grades and working costs.


    The main criterion for a comparative assessment is shareholder return on equity. On this basis, Gold Fields’ record is far superior to that of Harmony. More telling is the fact that Gold Fields is profitably expanding abroad, while Harmony must contract, with cost, just to survive as a marginal producer.


    Gold Fields has been rapidly increasing its low-cost gold resources by prospecting and by acquisition abroad, where undeveloped gold-bearing ore bodies can be mined more cheaply than is possible in SA’s remaining deep-level ore bodies. Meanwhile, Harmony is a marginal, deep-level, high-cost miner — which now has to undergo a major 25%-50% contraction, with a 20% reduction of its workforce, over two years, at great cost, if it is to become manageable and profitable again. This is based on Harmony’s declared ore reserves and using realistic, required mining grades (with a higher pay limit than used in the orereserve calculations).


    Much of Harmony’s gold resource material might have to wait two decades before the balance of cost advantage, now enjoyed by non-South African producers (or 86% of world production) begins to swing back to SA, along with a major price rise above present levels.


    On discounted present-value analysis — taking account of a period of negative cash flows to cover short-term losses, paying off debt and the capital expenditure for reconstruction — Harmony’s present share price looks significantly overvalued. On the basis of the perceived risk of failure, the same could be true.


    The recently announced plan to retrench 5000 Harmony workers, which was apparently begun in April last year, is a good start. Harmony will need to cut a further 5000 jobs over the following two years. To pay the required retrenchment compensation and the capital expenditure involved in the restructuring, Harmony would have to take on a lot more debt (or go for a new capitalisation issue and dilute its shares further).


    The present profit producers are Target (a new mine), two or three shafts in Free State, the Cooke shaft on the West Rand, and Evander, which has uncertain prospects. (Harmony’s Australian mine is comparatively insignificant). Shareholders must wait to see reasonable returns while the money-losers are closed.


    Harmony is a victim of apartheid’s management of foreign exchange, whereby government was able to maintain a high rand-dollar value with negative net reserves by running an aggressive forward currency book. This was a very expensive strategy used by former Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals to defend the rand during the 1997-98 southeast Asian economic crisis.


    A few years ago, after the Economist, in a comparative study of undercovered currencies, rated the rand among the most at risk of forced devaluation, such a devaluation did occur. Foreign investors lost faith in the rand and Tito Mboweni, who took over from Stals, let the rand find its own level.


    For the year to October 2002, the exchange rate averaged just below R11 to the dollar. Those were glorious, high-profit days for Harmony.


    As an end-of-mine-life specialist, with a credible record of being able to cut costs and restructure (using a higher ratio of geologists to mining engineers), Harmony bought up “cheaply” most of the old mines (largely low grade).


    The two major mining groups had started to move offshore where there was much greater undeveloped gold-mining potential. Harmony also went abroad to buy mines in Russia, Canada and Australia. In its acquisition spree, Harmony used its then high market-valued paper and debt to buy much of this growth. It is very possible that Harmony took on more than it could handle.


    The glory days came to an end when Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and the treasury were able to stop government’s tendency towards excessive budget deficits and managed to pay off the forward currency debt. The dollar is now in structural decline, and the rand has nearly doubled its dollar worth and is structurally strong. This makes Harmony’s South African operations as marginal as before.


    Lacking financial strength, Harmony has been forced to sell some of its foreign acquisitions at nonoptimal prices. It now must find a lot more new capital just to restructure itself and survive.


    - Body is an independent precious metals analyst and Spence is an economist.
    http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=8889



    >Um das wirkliche Bild zu sehen, muß man Harmony´s Propaganda gegen Gold Fields herausnehmen– armseliges Management und so weiter- was alles durch die heutigen Fakten gar nicht gedeckt ist. [Blockierte Grafik: http://download.smiliemania.de/smilies132/00000285.gif]


    Mehr noch, Harmonys Begründung für die Übernahme trifft auf Harmony selbst zu, da Harmony anscheinend die Kontrolle über die Grade und Arbeitskosten verloren hat. [Blockierte Grafik: http://www.mainzelahr.de/smile/froehlich/lachen.gif]



    Das Hauptkriterium für einen Vergleich ist die Eigenkapitalrendite. Auf dieser Basis ist GFI weit überlegen. Noch aussagekräftiger ist, daß GFI profitabel im Ausland expandiert, während HAR kontrahieren muß, nur um als Grenzproduzent überleben zu können.


    GFI hat schnell seine niedrigkostenden Goldressourcen im Ausland erweitert. Währenddessen ist HAR ein Grenzminer mit kostenintensiven Tiefminen, die nun um 25-50% abgebaut werden müssen, mit einer 20% Reduktion der Belegschaft innerhalb zweier Jahre bei großen Kosten, wenn es wieder profitabel werden will.


    Bei einer diskontierten Barwertanalyse, die die Zeiträume mit negativem Kassenzufluß für kurzfristige Verluste, Schuldentilgung und Kapitalkosten für Rekonstruktionen berücksichtigt, erscheint Harmonys gegenwärtiger Aktienpreis signifikant überbewertet. [Blockierte Grafik: http://www.mainzelahr.de/smile/froehlich/lachen.gif]



    Der kürzliche angekündigte Plan, 5000 Arbeiter abzubauen, ist ein guter Beginn. Harmony muß weitere 5000 Jobs in den folgenden zwei Jahren abbauen. [Blockierte Grafik: http://download.smiliemania.de/smilies132/00000116.gif] Für den Schrumpfungsprozeß muß HAR eine Menge mehr Schulden machen oder eine Kapitalerhöhung mit Aktienverwässerung durchführen.


    Im Jahr 2002 war der Randkurs 11R zum Dollar. Dies waren die glorreichen, hochprofitabeln Tage von Harmony.


    Als ein Spezialist für Gruben am Ende ihrer Lebensdauer, mit einer Erfolgsstory von Kostensenkungen und Restrukturierungen, kaufte HAR „billig“ die meisten der alten Gruben (hauptsächlich niedriggradige).


    HAR kaufte auch Gruben in Rußland, kanada und Australien mit der damals hochbewerteten Aktie und Schulden. Möglich, daß Harmony mehr auf sich nahm, als es verkraften konnte.


    Die glorreichen Tage waren vorbei, als die exzessiven staatlichen Budgetdefizite gestoppt wurden. Der Rand hat sich beinahe verdoppelt und ist strukturell stark. Dies macht Harmonys Südafrikaoperationen marginal wie zuvor.


    Durch die fehlende finanzielle Stärke war Harmony gezwungen, einige der ausländischen Akquisitionen zu ungünstigen Preisen zu verkaufen. Nun muß es eine Menge mehr neues Kapital finden, nur um sich selbst zu restrukturieren und zu überleben. <


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://www.mainzelahr.de/smile/geschockt/augen58.gif]

    Danke für ein faires Asessment!


    Nicht dass ich nicht auch ein Freund von Harmony war , und insbesondere Ferdi Dippenaar als solchen bezeichnet hätte, war ich einigermassen befremdet vom idiotischen Ansinnen GFI zu inadequaten terms übernehmen zu wollen.


    Diese total inkopatible Idee wird HAR mehr scahden als nützen.


    Dennoch bin ich etwas betreten. Ich habe mitansehen müssen, dass Homestake von ABX, den schlimmsten Scalper übernommen wurde. Ein ZEICHEN DER ZEIT: Hab damals argumentiert, dass Merck Fink nicht von ungefähr eine gewisse Sperrminorität kaufte und dennoch unter dem Einstand verkaufte.


    August bist Du blöd? Wohl kaum... und ich sprach mit seinem "hatchet man", Dr. von Stahl mit dem Erfolg mich um meine Angelegenheiten zu kümmern. Nun, ja, das ist meine Angelegenheit mich um die älteste Gold Mine der USA zu kümmern, bei der ich Aktionär war.


    Auch wenn ich kurzfristig verdient habe ist der Verkaufspreis von 8 $ US ein Witz.


    Wer "stahl" den reellen Wert und vielmehr den ideellen Wert von Homestake?


    Go figure ....

    GOGO Gold Fields Limited - Gold Fields Granted Interdict To Stop Strike ActionGold Fields LimitedShare code: GFLIsin: ZAE000014270GOLD FIELDS GRANTED INTERDICT TO STOP STRIKE ACTIONJohannesburg, 31 March 2005: Gold Fields Limited (GFI: JSE and NYSE) ispleased to announce that the Labour Court this afternoon granted an interdict infavour of the Company, declaring the strike embarked on by the National Union ofMineworkers (NUM) on Wednesday, 30 March 2005, to be unlawful and unprotected.This means that all employees participating in the strike at all South Africanoperations are required immediately to discontinue their strike action and toreturn to work.Gold Fields is in the process of advising the NUM and all employees of thisdevelopment and requesting employees to return to work without further delay.Production activities should resume from the night shift this evening.Gold Fields is pleased that this matter has been brought to a rapid close,thereby minimizing the losses for both the company and employees.ends

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