The gold price has spent 2026 breaking records, and one of the world's biggest producers is banking the difference. Business Day summed the update up as a bumper first half, driven by higher output and a stronger gold price. Gold Fields guided its half-year headline earnings 72% to 90% higher, to between $1.98 and $2.18 a share, from $1.15 a year earlier. Basic earnings are set to rise in step, and adjusted free cash flow before discretionary investments should more than double, up 91% to 111% to between $2.39 billion and $2.64 billion.
Ounces up, costs up too
The gains came from more gold-equivalent ounces sold at a higher price, partly offset by rising costs. First-half attributable production rose 12% to 1.26 million ounces, while all-in sustaining costs climbed 13% to $1,900 an ounce. In the second quarter alone the group produced 630,000 ounces at all-in costs of $2,200 an ounce. Full-year output is now guided to the upper end of the 2.4 to 2.6 million ounce range, and the miner trimmed 2026 group capital spending to between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion, partly a reclassification of some Windfall project spending. Performance varied by mine: Chile's Salares Norte is on track to beat guidance, while Australia's Gruyere lifted output 25% quarter on quarter but is at risk of missing its full-year target on high contractor turnover.
Building in Canada
Gold Fields is a globally diversified producer with eight operating mines across Australia, South Africa, Ghana, Chile and Peru, plus the Windfall project in Canada that it picked up through the 2024 Osisko Mining acquisition, and produced 2.44 million gold-equivalent ounces in 2025. Windfall ranks among the largest gold deposits in Canada and a top-10 globally by grade. During the half it signed an Impact Benefit Agreement with the Cree Nation for Windfall and now expects environmental approval in the second half of 2026, ahead of a final investment decision, with project capital seen at the upper end of a $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion range.
Full interim results are due on 25 August, when investors will look past the record earnings to how fast Windfall can move.
