Capital expenditure at Gold Fields' Ghanaian operations is expected to reach R241-million this year, according to the company's latest annual report, which was released last week.

This is a marked increase from the 4-million the mining house spent in Ghana in the past year.

Gold Fields said it was committed to becoming a world leader in finding and developing precious metal operations.

The company is focused on exploiting gold and platinum group metals around the world.

Aside from Ghana, activities in the rest of Africa include operations in Burkina Faso and Tanzania.

Gold Fields also has projects in Europe, North America, South America and also Australasia.

Most of the increase in expenditure in Ghana relates to a R120-million expansion at its Tarkwa mine. Besides the expansion at Tarkwa, a recent acquisition has altered the nature of the company's operations in that country.

In its annual report, Gold Fields said the addition of the Damang mine in the past year has changed its complexion to a multioperational division.

Gold Fields and its partner, the royalty collector, Repadre, concluded a deal that saw them buying 90% of the unlisted Abosso the owner of Damang.

Gold Fields holds 71,1% of Abosso, Repadre 18,9% and the Ghanaian government 10%. Management was now focusing on optimising the shared resources of both mines in order to create synergies. Gold Fields' hinted in the report that operating the combined mining operation has not been easy.

It said the transitional process in taking over Damang was challenging and there were also a number of operational issues that needed to be fully understood before any further significant changes were made.

However, there were areas where an immediate merging of resources was implemented notably the Accra head office and, to a lesser degree, the procurement function.

It is expected that a full rationalisation of the two properties will take place during the coming financial year, the report says.

Real value lies in exploiting the size of the combined operations in terms of orebodies, purchasing and services.

Both operations in Ghana were planning to reflect similar performance levels to those achieved in the past year.

Total earnings for the Ghanaian operations for the year were $41,9m against 30,5-million in the previous year. Damang contributed $8,3-million and Tarkwa $33,6-million.

The total gold production from Ghana amounted to 0,68-million ounces for the year to June.

This included the five-month contribution from the Damang mine.

Production at Tarkwa amounted to 0,54-million ounces for the period.

However, Gold Fields' does not expect things to go smoothly at Tarkwa, as harder ores were expected in the Tarkwa pits.

This has the potential to reduce throughput at the south plant and, in later years, the north plant.

To offset the reduced crushing throughput the as a result of the harder ores, two secondary crushers from the inactive Teberebie West plant have been moved to the south plant.