管理層發言
Good day, everybody, and thank you for joining us for the presentation of Gold Fields results for the 6 months to 30th of June 2026. My name is Mike Fraser, and joined today in our Johannesburg office is Alex Dall, our Chief Financial Officer; and Jongisa Magagula, EVP of External Affairs. So today, our message is very simple. Our operations delivered a solid first half performance. We converted this, in conjunction with a higher and supportive gold market, into very strong cash flows. And that, in turn, allowed us to deliver higher returns to our shareholders. I wanted to just bring your attention to the forward-looking statements, which include some non-IFRS measures, and I ask you to take note of the slide on Page 2. So in terms of the agenda for today, I will cover the highlights and the operational performance. Alex will cover the financials and capital allocation, and we'll also touch on some of the transformation initiatives underway to create a more reliable and agile organization.
And finally, I'll close on growth strategy and the outlook before we open for questions. So turning to the highlights of the first half. So firstly, we had a strong half. And most importantly, we had no fatalities and no serious injuries across the group. This is a real manifestation of the fact that our safety improvement program that we launched in 2024 is really gaining momentum and delivering encouraging results across our business. We were also able to deliver a 12% increase in attributable production to 1.267 million ounces. This was firstly led by Salares Norte, which really delivered a 173% increase on the equivalent period, which was an extremely strong performance as well as strong delivery from Granny Smith. Importantly, South Deep also continued to demonstrate productivity improvements in the underground and delivered 151,000 ounces in line with its plan. This was supported by improved destress mining, improved development as well as improved stope turnover.
Our sales volumes in the 6 months was 18% higher, and our average realized gold price was 51% higher at $4,678. This drove adjusted free cash flow of $2.225 billion, more than double the prior period, and this translates into a free cash flow yield of 11%. Our cash costs rose 10% and all-in sustaining costs were up 13% to $1,893 an ounce. This was mainly driven by external factors, including royalties, stronger producing currencies and inflation. This also reflected the higher discretionary capital that we flagged at our Capital Markets Day in November. Alex will unpack the movements in costs a little bit further when he presents. Just moving to our transformation program. We acknowledge that we can't stand still. And so our transformation program is really driving a focus on productivity, improving efficiencies, cost competitiveness and organizational resilience and simplicity. We believe that this focus on the transformation will really ultimately transform into more sustainable and improved performance over time.
When turning to cash generation, we wanted to make it very clear that we are translating the stronger cash generation into benefits to our shareholders. We have paid out 50% of our operating cash flow in the 6 months with an interim base dividend of ZAR 16.25 per share, which is up 132% year-on-year. In addition, we have completed $300 million of buybacks that were completed between the period of March to July. In terms of our top-up shareholder return program, today, we also announced an additional $500 million that was allocated to our top-up program, which takes the total program to $1.25 billion that have been allocated since we first announced this in November of 2025. As we said, the top-up program will be assessed every 6 months as cash is generated. Today, we've delivered $553 million of the $1.25 billion, $253 million in a special dividend that was allocated in February and $300 million in buybacks.
Our net debt-to-EBITDA finished at 0.06x at the end of June, down from 0.37x a year ago, and we continue to invest in the business. Windfall is one of the highest grade ore bodies in Canada and our next growth frontier, and I'll talk a little bit about that later. An important milestone was achieved with the signing of the IBA. And we've also progressed detailed engineering and execution readiness to derisk this project. Our portfolio optimization also continues. We've completed the Damang exit and have completed $182 million of noncore disposals in the half. In the first half, we strengthened our financial capacity. Our production is tracking towards the upper end of our guidance. Our all-in sustaining costs and all-in costs are expected towards the mid and lower end of their guidance ranges. Our operating delivery is translating into cash, balance sheet strength and capacity to fund growth as well as returning cash to shareholders.
I'll now turn on to our operational performance, starting with safety. Importantly, as I mentioned earlier, we had no fatalities or serious injuries in the first half. This is a real manifestation of the discipline of our teams in achieving these outcomes. This is a combination of visible felt leadership, critical risk identification and critical control verification, focusing on a disciplined planning of work and embedding the right behaviors in the execution of work. We continue to track hazard and near miss reporting with enterprise-wide learning from our incidents. Our focus is now extending from the lagging indicators to the quality of critical control verification and leading the focus on the lead indicators. We are also focusing on psychological safety and creating a safe operating culture within our safety improvement program, ensuring that everyone goes home safe and well every day.
Just moving on to our operating performance. So we, as I mentioned earlier, delivered 1.25 million ounces of attributable production and with total cash costs up around 10%, all-in costs up 9% as we had slightly lower capital costs coming out of Salares and Windfall and capital expenditure in total up 6% and our production and costs on track to meet annual guidance. Salares Norte, as I mentioned, was at a standout performance now at a steady state. Granny Smith produced 147,000 ounces, up 10% with higher mined grades and improved underground productivity and South Deep delivered in line with plan due to improved destress rates and shortening stope turnaround times. Despite a slight reduction in grade, the mine produced more ounces on a managed basis in the period. Moving on to our production profile, and this just shows the bridge of higher output and improved quality mix led by low-cost ounces from Salares.
Cerro Corona was in line with plan and lower year-on-year as we now transition to stockpile processing. As Salares achieved steady state, they achieved 173% higher production with plant operating successfully throughout the winter conditions that we had similar to prior years. And this reinforces the capability of that operation and the team in delivering through some extreme conditions. Tarkwa is slightly lower year-on-year as we realized lower mill feed grades as we process more stockpile and moved more waste material than ore during the 6 months. We also had some adverse weather conditions affecting load, haul, and drilling in the period. We are seeing improved performance in the second quarter and expect to see a step change in the second half of the calendar year. South Deep is performing in line with plan and continue to see strong underground performance. Agnew was impacted by the seismic event that we experienced in the beginning of 2026, and we are seeing encouraging signs of the recovery, which we expect to continue in H2.
Just moving on to all-in sustaining costs. As I mentioned, our all-in sustaining cost was at $1,893 an ounce, impacted by slightly higher strip ratios across some of our assets and structural cost impacts of mining at depth. We did have some uncontrollable factors, which Alex will talk to, including higher royalties, some inflationary impacts and offset by the impact of byproduct credits, particularly at Salares Norte. We have seen a change in the cost base with Salares Norte now moving to commercial level of production and Gruyere now consolidated at 100% rather than 50%. There were some impacts on mining cost inflation at Gruyere and Tarkwa in particular, and Alex again will cover that. But what we are seeing is higher volumes, better recoveries and focus on value-driven spend, again, which Alex will unpack as part of our transformation journey on decarbonization with the St. Ives renewable energy project due to come on stream at the second half of this year and a very key focus on water and where we have achieved 93% recycling of water across our assets. I'll now hand over to Alex to talk through the financial outcomes.
Thank you, Mike. I will cover the financial performance, capital allocation and transformation program. H1 2026 was a very strong six months for Gold Fields, with headline earnings, earnings per share and free cash flow all more than doubling. As Mike mentioned, the key drivers were higher production and a stronger gold price. Production and sales volumes were up 18% and the gold price was up about 50%, which supported a step change in our earnings and cash generation. Adjusted free cash flow increased to $2.2 billion, while net debt reduced to $437 million, significantly strengthening flexibility on our balance sheet. Excluding lease liabilities, we ended the half in a net cash position. Importantly, this performance gives us the financial capacity and the funding for fixed assets to deliver top-quartile shareholder returns as committed. This slide reconciles our IFRS cost of sales to our all-in costs and highlights the strength of the underlying cost base.
Both cost of sales and depreciation have increased materially year on year, primarily due to the consolidation of Gruyere and the fixed asset adjustments from that acquisition. We believe this represents a highly competitive underlying cash and productive asset base. Contractors, labor, consumables and maintenance make up the majority of our cost base, and these areas represent our biggest opportunity to improve competitiveness through the transformation program by reducing consumption and procuring more cheaply. Sustaining capital of $497 per ounce, in line with what we communicated at Capital Markets Day, reflects the targeted reinvestment into our asset base, including waste stripping, underground development and enabling infrastructure. Including leases and other items, our all-in sustaining cost was $1,893 per ounce. Our all-in cost rose to $2,125 per ounce, primarily due to growth capital expenditure at our Australian operations and exploration expenditure related to Windfall.
We believe we have a competitive cash cost base that enables us to invest in our assets, fund future growth and deliver shareholder returns. Turning to capital allocation, our framework remains unchanged: we balance returns, growth and financial strength. Our first priority is investing in safe, reliable operations, maintaining our investment-grade credit rating and paying our base dividend of 35% of free cash flow before discretionary capital. Remaining capital competes to build balance sheet flexibility, deliver additional shareholder returns and support discretionary investments. The slide demonstrates that this framework is working: we invested $0.6 billion in sustaining capital, $0.3 billion in growth investments, reduced net debt by $0.8 billion and returned $1.4 billion to shareholders, which is almost 50% of the total cash generated before capital. On our additional shareholder return program, we have already delivered $553 million through the program: $253 million of special dividends as part of our final dividend last year and $300 million of share buybacks completed between March and July.
Those buybacks were executed at an average price of approximately ZAR 590 per share, well below today’s share price, demonstrating our willingness to act opportunistically to create value. Given the balance sheet strength and H1 cash generation, we are allocating another $500 million to increase the program to $1.25 billion. The framework remains disciplined and flexible: special dividends will sit alongside our annual dividend cycle and be declared as part of our final dividend each year, and we will execute share buybacks opportunistically when we see value. We will review this program every six months and top it up as we generate cash. We believe we can invest in our assets and future growth while remaining committed to delivering returns to shareholders, allocating capital where it creates value. On the balance sheet, after funding both the Osisko and Gold Road transactions, we have reduced our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio to 0.06x and are in a net debt position of $437 million; excluding lease liabilities, we are in a net cash position.
We maintain significant liquidity with cash and available facilities and have a well-structured debt maturity profile with no near-term refinancing pressures and long-dated funding that provides flexibility through the gold price cycle. This balance sheet underpins our capital allocation framework, allowing us to invest in assets and future growth while continuing to return capital to shareholders. Finally, on transformation: this is how we make performance reliable, repeatable and scalable across Gold Fields while continuing to perform now. The program is built around two connected pillars: value, which unlocks productivity, cost efficiencies and cash improvements, and operating capabilities, which make those improvements sustainable. Within the value pillar, we have identified and prioritized opportunities across operational performance, cost discipline, asset management, fleet performance, processing performance and the supply chain, where we have implemented global category management.
In parallel, we are building the operating capabilities needed to sustain and scale those gains through a stronger operating model, clear accountabilities, standard processes and a digital backbone. The objective is simple: deliver value today while building capabilities that make superior performance sustainable through the cycle. The value pillars extract the benefit and the operating capabilities lock it in. Together, they will help us become a simpler, stronger and more consistent Gold Fields, delivering improved performance today and creating value for shareholders. Now I hand over to Mike to talk about growth.
Thanks very much, Alex. I just want to make a couple of comments around growth before we break for questions, and I also want to talk through a few assets in our portfolio that I think are undervalued, which we'll cover a little later. As Alex has clearly demonstrated, we are very mindful and thoughtful about how we allocate the capital and cash flows we generate. As we said back in November when we outlined our revised capital allocation framework, we will be measured by how well we balance returning cash to shareholders today with investing for the future. Fortunately, the current environment allows us to deliver on both. As we think about growth, our focus is on growing cash flow per share and increasing the value of the company rather than just ounces. The three levers of our growth strategy—brownfields, greenfields and potential bolt-on M&A—are all about improving portfolio quality over time while competing against alternative uses of capital.
Starting with Salares Norte, the opportunity is immense. In the first six months we delivered 337,000 ounces, up 173% year-on-year. While the ramp-up was slow initially, performance has reached an incredible level. H1 all-in sustaining cost was $269 an ounce, supported by strong silver prices as a byproduct. We performed well throughout winter, delivered positive grade reconciliation, and saw strengthened recoveries through the plant, which gives us strong confidence in what this asset can deliver over time. Free cash generation of just under $1.2 billion in six months is remarkable, especially compared to the conversations we were having two years ago about Salares. Moving to Windfall, it is one of Canada’s highest-grade development-stage gold projects, offering considerable growth prospects along strike and down plunge and expected to provide a long-life, low-cost production platform. The opportunity extends well beyond the current mine plan.
We have made good progress this year: an IBA is signed and we expect an EIA approval in H2 2026. We continue to de-risk the project by advancing engineering and preparing for execution readiness. We are continuing exploration drilling at depth under the existing Windfall ore body and are seeing impressive intercepts with assays in excess of 50 grams per tonne. Our three-year drilling program is designed to infill the exploration corridor of the existing asset to increase confidence and continuity of mineralisation, and we believe this will allow us to add reserves to the known resource. The style of this ore body is similar to St. Ives, where we have been successful in replacing reserves over a long period. Looking at the Windfall district, while Windfall is the anchor project, the opportunity is much larger than the current mine. We have a district-wide opportunity with a target-rich pipeline and are accelerating testing across multiple targets.
Our objective is to progressively expand the scale, scope and longevity of Windfall, whether through a major discovery or by adding additional high-margin ounces that leverage infrastructure from the first phase. The Phoenix JV with Bonterra is an important part of the strategy, consolidating strategic ground around Windfall, including the Barry and Gladiator deposits. We are targeting completion of the earn-in on this JV in H2 2026, which would give us access to 70% of that property. Briefly on St. Ives: this combines a large endowment with established infrastructure, giving a staged pathway to extend life and lift production since the mill is not running at full capacity. The strategy is delivering scale at Invincible, increasing underground throughput by developing a material handling system to deliver 3.4 million tonnes a year from underground within the next five years. We are also diversifying ore feed through an expanded open pit strategy.
Santa Ana, Britannia and other near-surface resources will help fill surface capacity. The Argo cutback and tailings strategy will add resilience to feed. We retain further upside by staging mill and recovery studies and investing across a highly prospective tenement package. We believe St. Ives has more than 20 years of life, with current reserves around 3.9 million ounces and a strong history of resource conversion, which suggests significant further upside. Other assets also have significant upside. At Gruyere we continue to study the Stage 8 and underground trade-off, evaluate Gilmour options and accelerate exploration in Yamarna. We are progressing land access acquired through the Gold Road transaction and hope to commence drilling shortly. At Granny Smith we are extending Wallaby at depth with further drilling at Zones 150 and 160, developing materials handling and exploring additional open pit feed to utilise surplus mill capacity.
We are also applying discretionary investment in enabling infrastructure to extend Granny Smith over time. South Deep has an exciting future. We continue to progress the South of Wrench study and have started surface exploration drilling in the last six months to define the outer limits of South of Wrench, which remains promising geologically. We are progressing shaft and renewable energy studies to explore pathways to lift production beyond the 20–25% increase we flagged for the next 5–7 years. Early surface drilling has intercepted reef and indicates the ore body continues in a very homogenous way. Tarkwa also has opportunity to lift value by improving fleet productivity and plant throughput while preserving Kottraverchy upside and sequencing growth capital alongside the lease renewal. These are capital-efficient options competing for capital that will improve portfolio quality within our existing assets.
On our greenfields program, we spent nearly $180 million across brownfields and greenfields in H1 2026. We extended our position in Founders Metals as they consolidated 100% of that position; we funded the acquisition to reach 19.9% on a 100% basis. They continue to deliver strong exploration results and we are working closely to consider district consolidation. In Australia we have a district-scale pipeline across several target zones on the East Coast and in WA. In Canada, we are focused on an extensive exploration program across the 2,500 square kilometre land package around Windfall and have secured significant land access for the next drilling phase. In South America, we have undertaken initial drilling at the Wayra project in Peru, our first greenfields campaign in over a decade, and continued work at Villa Tati in northern Chile. We are very excited about growth and the greenfields opportunity set.
A brief update on the Tarkwa lease renewal: current leases expire in April 2027. We submitted a detailed technical study and lease application in November 2025 and provided a comprehensive commercial proposal to the government in July 2026. This proposal supports continued investment to unlock the asset’s potential for the next 20 years and aims to share value fairly between the government of Ghana, local communities and shareholders. We are waiting for a formal government response and noted in our results that the timing, outcome and terms of the renewal remain uncertain. We will provide updates in due course. Our production guidance remains unchanged. We expect to deliver toward the upper end of guidance, with all-in sustaining cost toward the midpoint and all-in cost slightly toward the lower end based on lower capital spend in H2. Group CapEx has been revised slightly down while sustaining capital is unchanged.
To close on some relativities: the Gold Fields investment proposition rests on a quality portfolio with strong cash flow, disciplined growth and a commitment to balance returns and investment. Salares Norte has strengthened the mix and diversification of our performance, and more than half of our assets have upside from existing infrastructure and installed capacity. We see high-quality production and margin expansion ahead, supporting sustainable free cash flow that will fund reinvestment, enable a stronger base dividend and additional returns, while further strengthening our balance sheet. We have a deliberate pathway for brownfields exploration and Windfall development, with strong funding and disciplined gating before major capital is committed. Today we have a free cash flow yield of over 10%, which we believe is among the highest in our peer set. We trade at a 4.9x EV to EBITDA, among the lowest in our peer set, with a net cash, ungeared balance sheet and fully funded growth at Windfall and St. Ives.
We believe this provides a compelling investment case. Our priorities for the second half are clear: keep people safe and ensure everyone goes home safe and well, hold Salares Norte to nameplate, deliver on plans for the remainder of our assets, advance Windfall permitting and conclude the Tarkwa lease renewal. We will continue to scan for opportunities through a disciplined pathway using the three growth levers we have defined. Thank you for listening to our presentation. We'll now hand over to the operator to take questions.
Sorry, operator, I just wanted to acknowledge that we've got participants that are attending via Chorus Call and who will be able to ask questions, but we also have attendees via the webcast who will have to type their questions and I will share them with Mike and Alex. So can I propose and I see that there's already Ephrem and Raj already in the queue for the Chorus Call. So we'll start with their two questions, move on to the webcast questions and then alternate backwards to Chorus Call, if that's okay with you, operator.
分析師問答
Our next first question comes from Ephrem Ravi from Citigroup.
Congratulations on a very good set of results. Firstly, on probably the best performing asset versus expectations, Salares Norte. In terms of the guidance you gave at the Capital Markets Day last year of 500,000 to 550,000 ounces of gold equivalent, you did almost 65% of that already in the first half. Is it fair to say that this could be exceeded for this year and next year, or is there some phasing for grade? As the grade normalizes, would it be fair to see a higher ASIC cost, or are there other levers you can pull to keep ASIC at current levels? Related to Salares, the free cash flow of $1.2 billion for the half nearly covers the entire CapEx you spent on this project. Applying that to Windfall, with CapEx of about $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion in the last guidance, is there a possibility to scale up Windfall now that you are doing more drilling and develop a bigger mine than initially planned, given the cash available for a larger operation?
Thanks very much for the question, Ephrem. A comment on Salares: in the first six months we have seen something different from what we expected at the Capital Markets Day in November. We've had a more positive grade reconciliation from the pits, which we're further testing to understand its extent. That has allowed us to achieve higher gold units. We've also seen better plant recoveries, which has contributed. More significantly, we've seen higher realized silver prices, which have translated into higher gold-equivalent production for the six months. Looking at the full year, you're right that the guidance of 500 to 550 is likely to be exceeded. Today we've said it's more likely to be in the 550 to 600 range. On the cost side, costs will depend on silver prices. We're also moving into an optimization phase Alex mentioned, focused on productivity, efficiency and cost optimization. Salares is part of that; now that we've ramped it up, we see opportunities to run the asset more efficiently and capture benefits. I'll ask Alex if he wants to add anything about Salares before I move to Windfall.
No, I think you've covered it all, I think.
Just on Windfall, I think what has always constrained us is the environmental impact assessment, and the approval application was submitted before we acquired our position in Windfall. To change the scope of the project now would require going back and essentially restarting that process. Our strategy for Windfall remains to develop the first phase of the asset, and shortly afterwards we would study what a scale-up opportunity could look like. There are a number of factors that come into play, and we certainly will not stand by doing nothing while waiting for approvals; we'll be ready to continue those studies as soon as we receive them. But at present we believe that doing anything different now would complicate the approval process.
The next question comes from Raj Ray of BMO Capital Markets.
I have 3 questions, if I may. First is more of a clarification from Alex. So the $500 million additional capital returns, that is not necessarily just for H2, that's over the remainder of '26 and '27. Is that correct?
So Raj, the way we're going to look at it is we've allocated $500 million additional. It may not all be completed in the next 6 months. We may also use some of that for our special dividend if we consider it as part of our year-end results. And then what we will consider at each 6-month period is do we top up the program further as we generate the cash. So we're looking at it a little bit more differently than we're not basing it necessarily off long-term projections of future cash flows, but rather as we generate and earn cash, we will continue to top up the program that we feel that we are quite confident we'll be able to deliver into.
Yes. And I think the way that we like to think about this is a sustainable program. So it's not just a one-off. It's how do we deliver something that's sustainable as long as we earn it, we allocate and return.
Okay. That's great. A couple more questions. First, on your Australian material handling projects at St Ives and Granny Smith: can you give us some color on how much you have spent in the first half and when these projects really ramp up in terms of your capital spend and activities? Second, on Windfall: if I look at the all-in cost breakdown, and if I'm doing my math correctly, you spent around $147 million at Windfall in H1. Now you have said that part of it has been reclassified as exploration expense, and you're now saying that the CapEx spend is going to be towards the higher end of that $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. My question is, is whatever is being expensed and spent this year part of that $1.9 billion, or is this over and above that $1.9 billion?
Yes. Maybe I can start with Windfall, and Alex, do you want to talk about the capital, the material handling capital. Raj, I think at this stage, given that the project has not been approved, this is why it gets converted into exploration expense and expensed. So it isn't being capitalized at this point in time. Some of that capital is going to be included in the initial estimate. That's why we've said we will come out once we've got a project that's ready to be approved with the remaining capital to be spent and help with the reconciliation at that time.
And Mike, sorry, the feasibility study results will come out once you have the permits. Is that correct?
Yes. And look, we've largely completed the studies. It's really a timing issue. When do we get the EIA that allows us to move this project into execution. So there's a bit of an interplay between the timing of the delay and when we can actually approve the project.
And obviously, Raj, one thing is that when we talk about project capital, we mean directly attributable capital to that project. Some of our expenditures to date also include greenfield exploration on the property, exploration at depth, certain overheads and related items. We'll provide clarity and guidance when we publish the details. Regarding the materials handling system, at St. Ives we have commenced accelerated development of the decline for the conveyor system. In the first half of the year we spent approximately $20 million on that, and that pace will continue roughly every six months. The major spend occurs when you start installing the enabling infrastructure ordered from various suppliers. We have placed orders for long-lead items. At Granny Smith, we are still finalizing the feasibility study before making any major commitment.
Operator, I think we can take one more question. I see Tanya is in the queue before we move over to the webcast questions.
Next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek of Scotiabank.
I just wanted to follow up on Windfall, if I may. Can you remind me at what point if we don't have this permit in place, do we start slipping on this project? Is it if we don't get it by the fall of this year that we start slipping? And then remind me on the slippage again, is it one year slippage for the winter?
Yes. Tanya, we haven't really gone out to the market and said this is our revised schedule because we'd rather wait until we have an EIA. To be perfectly honest, we are now starting to see an impact on our ability to execute work during the first winter period. Therefore, if we don't have an EIA by the end of this calendar year, we're looking at slippage at least to the back end of 2029, and possibly later. That's what we're trying to navigate at the moment. We are ready to mobilize, particularly for the civil works, which are critical for us to move forward and deliver the camp infrastructure. We remain hopeful we can proceed, but we were expecting the EIA in June, so we're already two, nearly three months late, and that's starting to affect what we can realistically deliver during the first winter. I'd rather hold back for now. Once we have clarity on the timing of the EIA, we'll provide the timing for the project.
Yes. Fair enough. And that's on the capital as well and operating costs because those are a little bit scale a bit as well, right? And we've seen some other companies come out with some capital updates and costing updates with inflation coming through. So I know you've guided to the upper end of that range, but is it fair to assume that if we have further delay plus you factor in all of these other inflationary pressures that we are going to exceed that $2 billion mark?
Yes. And look, I think we'll unpack it. I mean it's probably early days for us to talk to that. The reason we guided at the higher end of that range is since November, there were a couple of factors that did impact on the capital estimate. There was some specific scope items that were requested by the environmental agency, for example, a nitrate treatment plant, which was around $50 million that was not planned in the original scope. And secondly, there was an EBA order that came out, which meant that we had to start paying labor from the date that they left home, which was again a change to our estimate. So those are kind of examples of things which were unplanned for and unknown at the time we made the guidance note. But as soon as we have an EIA, we'll come out with some revised schedule and capital.
And just to confirm, Tanya, that range was in real 2025 terms when we provided it in November. So it would have to be adjusted for inflation.
Yes. Okay. Coming back to your pillars for growth, you mentioned exploration, brownfield projects and bolt-on opportunities. How do you define bolt-on opportunities? Since your joint venture partners are essentially gone, would those be additional assets in the jurisdictions where you operate? Or do you mean bolt-ons that are more production-focused rather than development-focused? I'm interested in how you view those bolt-ons.
Yes. Tanya, I'd say that typically what we've been looking for is assets that really, as we've always said, ideally come on and create incremental value in our portfolio. I think we always said that we would probably only execute one material project at a time. Windfall is our priority to execute. So would we go and buy a shovel-ready project today? That probably wouldn't be the right focus. Quite clearly, producing high-quality assets in the right jurisdiction are not easily available, and if they are, they're very expensive. So we are being very discerning. We don't have to do M&A; I just want to make that point very clear. We have a very good outlook on our existing portfolio. Our greenfields program is gaining momentum and will deliver outcomes a decade out. But we'll always be opportunistic, and if the right opportunities come up we will consider them. Today it probably wouldn't be a near-term development project, but if it were something to be delivered seven years out, that might be of interest. So it's hard to put a strict definition around it. We look at the entire universe and consider where an asset would fit into our portfolio at the right time to deliver on our aspiration of growing cash flow per share over time.
If it's okay, I'll take a few questions from the webcast and read them. There are three from a Capital Markets participant. He asks whether you foresee royalty issues appearing in other regions around the world similar to what is happening in Ghana, and if so, how you would go about resolving those potential royalty problems going forward and whether there is an internal blueprint in place. His second question asks, given the industry's substantial revenue and cash flows, whether there is a high risk of intense competition for critical skills that could lead to increased employee turnover, whether you have evaluated this risk, and whether a retention strategy is in place. Maybe pause there and take...
Thanks for those questions. What we've seen in Ghana is, in many respects, unhelpful because it places the country in a fairly uncompetitive position for inward investment and represents a step-up in royalty regimes compared with elsewhere. At the time, we engaged both bilaterally and through industry bodies like the Chamber of Mines, as well as with our peers, to urge the government not to take short-term decisions that could harm the long-term health of the sector. That said, Ghana was under financial stress and saw the sector as an easy target. By contrast, Western Australia has held royalty rates steady for a long period despite movements in the gold price, reflecting an understanding that investors need predictability. You can see the kinds of investments going into a region that, while prospective, is no better than what Ghana offers. It’s important we make those messages clear, because sovereign risk does exist in certain jurisdictions.
Our approach is to work through industry bodies and directly with governments to discourage short-term decisions that undermine the sector’s long-term viability. On skills, you’re right to flag the risk. We’ve seen pockets of turnover in certain areas. For example, two years ago at South Deep we were losing skilled operators, but today many of those people are returning, which underlines the importance of a consistent value proposition—when assets perform, people want to be part of that. We’ve also seen high turnover in places like Western Australia, even among our business partners. We work closely with them to ensure competitive positioning and value propositions and, where needed, use retention mechanisms to retain talent. There is no one-size-fits-all solution; it requires real insight and a deliberate approach to hold on to talent in competitive parts of the world.
Good. And the next one, I'm going to take three, is from Luke Roberts. He says, given the decline in net debt, are you considering early repayment of any debt facilities at this stage? And then the next one after that is from Arnold van Graan from Nedbank CIB. He says, Mike, what do you think is needed to close the valuation gap with your peers? How much of that do you think is due to Tarkwa? And then the third one is from Bruce Williamson from Integral Asset Management. He says, Mike, how many surface holes do you need to drill South of Wrench to make you comfortable with the geology tonnes and grades?
So thank you, Luke. From a debt perspective, obviously, the first thing we do when we have excess cash is to pay down our revolving credit facilities because those we can reaccess. But we will continue to assess whether it makes sense to pay down our other facilities. For example, our term debt in Australia will probably be one of the easier ones to look at. And we do continuously monitor our bond prices. And if there was something where we could get them below par, we would definitely look at that opportunity if it arose.
Yes, thanks. Arnold, I think the issue around the valuation gap is interesting. From a starting point, we believe that we have delivered on our strategy over the last two years. From a delivery point of view we are no different from our peers and, in fact, we have a lot more exciting future potential. I think Tarkwa has been a drag on our share price. If you look at the underperformance in the last six months, we've underperformed by about 10 percent, which is probably the value attributable to Tarkwa or thereabouts. I also think there may be a slight misunderstanding about how we're positioning our additional returns program and what our capital allocation framework looks like. We absolutely believe we have a very competitive capital returns program. It is designed to have longevity and not just a big headline number. If we continue to be disciplined on capital allocation, invest in our business and deliver superior returns, hopefully the market will come to understand that we are trying to deliver sustainable returns rather than one-offs.
The combination of resolution on Tarkwa, putting Windfall into execution and continued delivery on our commitments on capital returns should see us rewarded. That's what we're working towards. Lastly, and that's why in the presentation we spoke about the inherent potential in our portfolio, maybe there's still not full value being attributed to some of the options in our business. Bruce, to your question on South Deep, think of this as some infill drilling south of Wrench but equally extension drilling to understand South Deep's perimeter. It's hard to put a number on it today, but over the next five years you'd expect us to do at least 100,000 to 200,000 meters of drilling to start defining that. We have reserves declared over that property, so there does not have to be a major reserve declaration around those assets. This is about extension drilling more than anything.
Thanks, Mike. Just mindful that we're up on time. I'll hand back to you for closing comments, Mike. There were a few questions that were still remaining, but we'll reach out directly to address those.
Yes. Thanks very much. And look, again, I'll just call out a couple of comments. We believe this was a very strong performance in the first 6 months, we were able, through the support of gold price as well as strong operating performance, really deliver superior returns to our shareholders as we had flagged as well as continuing to invest in our business. We think we have a number of catalysts and opportunities in our portfolio to improve our business, not least of which is the moving into execution of Windfall, the continued improvement in our existing portfolio and then also hopefully, resolution of Tarkwa, which would unlock further value. So hopefully, this was a good representation of the performance. And certainly, we are excited about what the next 6 months will bring. Thank you, everyone, for joining.