Gold Fields Ghana is advancing its commitment to nature-positive mining through biodiversity monitoring, land rehabilitation and environmental stewardship initiatives aimed at ensuring mining leaves a positive legacy on the environment.
Speaking to ghextractives.com on the sidelines of the West African Mining and Power Exhibition (WAMPEX) 2026 in Accra ahead of World Environment Day, the company’s Senior Manager for Environment and Laboratories said nature-positive mining has become a key pillar of Gold Fields’ environmental management strategy.
According to him, the company is moving beyond the traditional approach of simply minimizing environmental harm and is working toward delivering measurable positive outcomes for nature.
“As members of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), we are committed to ensuring that our activities have a positive impact on nature,” he said.
He explained that nature-positive mining requires mining companies to understand the environmental conditions that exist before operations and to demonstrate improvements over time through scientifically measurable indicators.
To support this objective, Gold Fields has undertaken a comprehensive biodiversity assessment across its operations, documenting and cataloguing plant and animal species found within its mining areas.
The study has been compiled into a publication that will serve as a baseline reference for tracking environmental changes and biodiversity trends in the future.
According to the environmental manager, the initiative is intended to create a lasting record of the state of the environment during the company’s operations and enable future generations to assess how biodiversity has evolved over time.
“We need to establish a baseline to understand the current condition of the environment and then measure progress in the years ahead. Under the nature-positive mining approach, we must be able to demonstrate measurable positive impacts on nature,” he said.
The biodiversity assessment, he noted, will help the company identify areas requiring intervention while providing data to evaluate the effectiveness of its environmental management programmes.
Beyond biodiversity monitoring, Gold Fields continues to implement concurrent land rehabilitation as part of its mining activities. The company restores disturbed land progressively as mining advances, with the aim of returning affected areas to a condition as close as possible to their original state.
Where concurrent rehabilitation is not feasible, such as in active mining pits, the company applies alternative restoration measures and maintains financial provisions for future rehabilitation.
As of December 31, 2025, Gold Fields’ estimated mine closure and rehabilitation cost for its Tarkwa operation stood at over US$107 million, secured through a reclamation bond lodged with the Government of Ghana through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The environmental manager said the arrangement ensures that resources will be available to restore disturbed land even if the company is unable to continue operations.
Despite progress made in land restoration, he acknowledged that rehabilitation efforts sometimes face challenges, including encroachment on reclaimed sites and illegal mining activities that damage restored areas.
However, he stressed that such challenges do not diminish the company’s responsibility to restore disturbed land.
“We cannot focus only on the challenges. Once land has been disturbed, we still have a responsibility to restore it,” he said.
