Much appreciate that and appreciate the welcome. My name is Mike Fraser. I am CEO of Gold Fields. Over the next 20 minutes, what I am going to do is take you through the Gold Fields story. Our focus is really on building a quality business, a focus on growth, organic growth, a focus on cash, and a focus on superior returns to shareholders. Today, as I appreciate many would want to hear, is also a discussion on our proposed acquisition of Northern Star, which has received quite a lot of attention over the last 24 hours. I just bring your attention to the forward-looking statements in the presentation. In particular, anything that we refer to Northern Star in terms of numbers are all from publicly available information. Just again, talking to the agenda, I will go through three parts. Firstly, just an overview of Gold Fields.
Secondly, the proposed combination of Northern Star, the merits and the synergies that we see, and then concluding with an overview of Gold Fields. We believe our standalone business demonstrates a quality portfolio with significant internal organic growth opportunities with strong cash generation and strong returns. From the outset, whilst we see strong merits in the combination with Northern Star, we will be very disciplined about how we pursue this opportunity. We think it does provide a compelling case for the combination to all shareholders, but we are equally comfortable with the strong delivery of our own internal opportunity set. Just moving on to the Gold Fields group overview. Today, we have eight operations across six countries. We are listed on the JSE as well as the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2025, we delivered 2.44 million ounces of gold, and this year we are guiding between 2.4 million and 2.6 million ounces with on track to delivering towards the top end of this range. If you go onto our strategy, what we are trying to create with Gold Fields is creating a reliable, predictable operating company, delivering relative outperformance in free cash flow per share growth, and delivering upper quartile returns to shareholders. The investment that we are making in both our portfolio, our operations, and our operating platform is to create a sustainable delivery platform to allow sustainable and predictable delivery from this portfolio. Ultimately, what we are trying to offer in terms of an investment proposition is creating a reliable operating platform, a growing cash flow per share business that allows investors to have exposure to a gold stock with reliable and lower operational risk.
You are already taking significant price risk when you are investing in gold equities, and we believe there is an opportunity for a predictable, growing business that delivers that reliability. Our strategy ultimately is supported by a capital allocation framework that seeks to balance investment in our assets and growth and delivery of upper quartile returns. One of the key things that I would like to bring your attention to is our core Safety is one of our core values. What is pleasing through a significant investment in our safety improvement program over the last three years, we have had zero fatalities and serious injuries in the first half of 2026, and we have not had any fatalities for 30 months. We believe that if we deliver predictable, reliable operations, we can guarantee that everyone goes home safe every day.
We are very comfortable that we, through the investment in people and our safety systems, that we can deliver on that guarantee. Just moving on to our business. We believe that today we deliver leading free cash flow yield and a high-quality business with a fully funded growth profile. We believe that we provide a compelling investment case. We are delivering sector-leading free cash flow yields relative to our peers whilst trading at amongst the lowest EV to EBITDA ratio. We also have a high-quality business with a portfolio of assets that are based to deliver organic growth to around 3 million ounces by the end of the decade. The key theme for us is that there's strong cash generation today, growth over the next five years, and strong shareholder returns throughout this profile.
I just now want to move on to talking about the proposed combination with Northern Star. Today, what we've done, well, in the last few weeks, is we had submitted a non-binding indicative and conditional proposal that we submitted on the 13th of September, and this was after a very significant period of engagement, and discussions with Northern Star that really failed to yield any significant progress. On that basis, we submitted a formal proposal to the board. We did get a response on the 24th of September from the board that suggested that further discussion was not appropriate this time. Following that, the leak came out, which everyone is now aware of, and we certainly responded with a very detailed announcement yesterday morning.
I would say from the outset that we continue to remain open for dialogue and we do think that this proposal warrants further consideration by the Northern Star board. Just to touch on the proposal briefly, the transaction has been structured as a mix of shares and cash with a transactional structure of a 0.3125 Gold Fields shares, plus a AUD 7.25 cash consideration per share with an implied offer price of $ 27 as of the 13th of September. At the time of the offer, it was a 22% premium to the undisturbed price. If you look at the pro forma ownership, it would result in 67% Gold Fields ownership and 33% ownership by Northern Star shareholders, with a mix and match cash facility available. As I said, we haven't had any direct engagement from the Northern Star board.
There's no binding agreement and therefore no certainty a transaction will conclude. As I'll move on to the rationale, we believe that this presents a very compelling story. What we are proposing is a stronger combined entity that we believe will deliver value for both sets of shareholders sooner, with the opportunity of creating a best-in-class gold producer with strongly diversified geographic exposure, providing a best-in-class and compelling growth profile with an operating platform that we've invested in that is ready to deliver on the promise of both businesses. We believe that this combination will continue to deliver significant free cash flow, with the ability to deliver sector-leading shareholder returns over the period, despite the fact that we have two very significant development opportunities in the combined profile.
In addition, I will mention this lately, we have a very unique synergy opportunity given our approximate location of our assets in Western Australia, and we believe that many of these would be typically unavailable in a transaction of this nature. Just what does this combination look like? This combination of these two assets will create the second-largest global gold producer with circa 4.1 million ounces of gold production based on our 2026 production estimates, with around 77 million ounces of reserves. More than 80% of production would be from Australia, North America, and Chile, delivering around $4 billion -$5 billion of synergies, with future growth coming from the high-quality development projects of Windfall and Hemi in Canada and Western Australia.
If you look at the combined business on a pro forma basis, 80% of production comes from Australia, Chile, Alaska, Ghana, and South Africa, and Peru making up the remainder, and consolidates our presence in Western Australia, a jurisdiction we know exceptionally well having operated there for the last 25 years. If you look at the position in Western Australia, this provides a very unique opportunity to consolidate these assets. This map shows our relative position of our assets and Northern Star Resources assets in Western Australia. What it will provide is the second-largest global production hub globally of 2.4 million ounces and consolidating opportunities in that region. 92% of Northern Star Resources' Australian reserves are within 100 km of Gold Fields' processing infrastructure.
This combination will allow us to ensure that the right ore is fed into the right mills in that area, resulting in lower haulage and processing costs, which is one of the core tenements of the operational synergies that we have identified. Just moving on to the synergies. As we have mentioned, we see around $4 billion-$5 billion of synergies available. These have all been risk-adjusted. We have not done detailed due diligence. If we do have the opportunity to get in, we will obviously look at how we can firm up these numbers. These are also net of transaction costs, so we have been conservative in how we assess these, and we feel a high degree of confidence in the delivery of these.
If you look at the four categories, one of the significant opportunities which forms around half of these synergies is the opportunity that we get on the tax reset, which allows an acceleration of depreciation and cash flows from the combination. We know that this is deliverable having seen that benefit from the acquisition of Gold Road Resources in 2025. The second-largest part, again, which I think is unique to us in this combination are the operational synergies. This again is the combination of delivering high-grade Agnew material into Thunderbox and delivering South Kalgoorlie material into the underutilized St Ives mill. Again, we think that these are opportunities fairly unique to Gold Fields and are able to be delivered. Clearly, there are opportunities with a large footprint around supply chain and procurement, as well as some opportunities around corporate and G&A savings.
For those that don't know, Australia is about half of our production. We have a very significant operating base in Perth. Our entire group technical team, major capital team is based out of Perth and I think are well-placed to support the delivery of the growth profile of the combined business. What does this look like in combination on metrics? As I said, this creates the second-largest gold producer globally with significant cash flow generation. What is interesting on a pro forma basis, these companies almost trade at the lowest multiple relative to their peer group. If you look at the combined quality, notwithstanding the strong cash generation and the synergy opportunity here, there's also a significant opportunity for a multiple re-rate, at least to the peer average, which will provide value uplift to both sets of shareholders. Now just moving on to our standalone business.
Again, the one thing that I'll be absolutely clear about, in conclusion on the Northern Star Resources opportunity, we see very, very strong industrial logic. We see real synergy opportunities, and we see the real opportunity to consolidate in this area, in the sector in a way that will create a very unique, globally competitive business. What is really important to leave everyone with is that we will be absolutely disciplined in the pursuit of this opportunity. If we aren't successful in bringing these two businesses together, we still believe we have a very compelling investment case on our own business that delivers very strong growth, cash flow, and returns. This is a slide that we showed at our Capital Markets Day in November, which we remain committed to and remain confident on our ability to deliver.
What this shows is that over the next five years, we have a pathway to grow our business organically up to 3.1 million ounces with stable costs. That ensures that we deliver on the promise of this portfolio, which is growing cash flow per share and enabling us to deliver superior returns to shareholders during this period. Our all-in sustaining costs peak in 2029 as we complete the Windfall build, and then you will see portfolio costs coming down as we stabilize the business and the investment beyond that. In summary, what we are promising is a delivery of more ounces at stable real costs, which provides real margin expansion at any gold price. One of the highlight assets I'd like to talk to is Salares Norte.
This is an exceptional project that we've been able to bring into production. In 2025, we delivered 337,000 ounces of gold equivalent at a $ 269 per ounce cost. In the first half of 2026, this project delivered $1.2 billion of free cash flow in six months. We are on track to be at the upper end of our guidance, close to 600,000 ounces of gold equivalent in 2026, and expecting to deliver that during the period of at least up to 2028. What is key and unique about this project is this is a project that was discovered as a greenfield project in 2007, and really defined as a resource in 2011 and then brought into production. So it really demonstrates the capabilities that we can bring, which is a full-service gold company from greenfields discovery right through to execution and operation.
Moving on to St Ives. This is another asset that we really are kind of really pleased to have in our portfolio. We have owned it since 2001. We, over that period, have discovered more than 10 million ounces of reserves since that acquisition. In 2025, at the end of 2025, we have 3.9 million ounces of reserve, and this is up from 1.7 million ounces in 2016. This demonstrates the nature of this ore body, that we continue to replace reserves, and is probably very similar to the rest of the ore bodies that we see in Western Australia. What is also important in this asset, we will increase the Invincible production up to 3.4 million tons per annum by 2030, adding 90,000 ounces. We have also invested in renewables and a sulfide recovery plant, which will give us a margin improvement from 2027.
Over the next five years, we also have 300 km of drilling planned to identify the next opportunities and replacing of reserve. Just on South Deep, this has been a troubled asset in the minds of many people, but what I can say over the last three years, we have really delivered, and that team has started to really deliver on the promise of this business. It is a very significant ore body with 31 million ounces of gold at 5 g per ton, one of the largest in the world. We now have a stable pathway to grow that business by 20% by the end of the decade with a further 20% uplift as we get to South of Wrench by 2031.
We have also invested in renewables with an additional 75 MW out of the Khanyisa solar plant, which will deliver on its own around $45 per ounce cost reduction. Just on the catalysts of some of our other assets. We have grown Gruyere and expanded their production processing facility. We have increased annual material movement from 48 million tons per annum in 2024 to 75 million tons per annum in 2026. We have the opportunity of accelerating the introduction of high-grade material from Golden Highway and also include the promise of the exploration opportunities across the broader Yamarna land package. At Granny Smith, we have a plan for material handling to reduce the cost of extracting ore at the very significant opportunity in Z150 and Z160 zones at the lower reaches of the mine. Also looking at alternative ore sources to fill the mill, which is currently only 50% utilized.
Across Agnew, we have real life extension opportunities through the Waroonga, Redeemer, New Holland zones, and we are going to invest over $80 million for drilling over the next three years. Just moving on to our growth profile. We have thought about our business in kind of three five-year horizons. Over the first horizon to 2030, we have a clear pathway to a 3 million ounce growth profile with catalysts coming from Salares Norte, Gruyere, South Deep, and Windfall. We have a second horizon where we sustain this production without any additional investments. Beyond 2035, we have some highly promising greenfield targets. We will only look at bolt-on M&A where it enhances cash flow per share. This is a slide which just shows the success in reserve replacement.
You can see, across these core assets, we have discovered over 43 million ounces of gold across these assets over the last 20 years. Just moving on very briefly to Windfall, we have spoken about this a lot. This is a project we are exceptionally excited about. Whilst we have some delay in the final EA approval, we believe this is imminent and are mobilized and ready to move that project in execution. This is a district-scale opportunity. We have 2,500 sq km, which is quite close to the Val-d'Or Camp, which has delivered over 100 million ounces of gold. We have only done really, the 70% of the drilling on this entire property has only been on 10% of that entire property.
We see significant opportunity to further explore on this broader land package with clear objectives to find the next Windfall deposit, to extend the mine life of the core asset. We are investing around $25 million per annum in exploration on this project. Just moving on to cash and returns very quickly. We have a very clearly defined capital allocation framework, with our priorities around delivering reliable operations and holding an investment-grade credit rating, delivering a base dividend of 35% of free cash flow. The way we think about the remaining free cash flow is everything should compete between discretionary investments, additional shareholder returns, and further balance sheet strength. In the first half of 2026, we delivered $3 billion of cash from operations. We have delivered significantly around our additional returns program and returned $250 million of additional special dividends and $300 million on buybacks.
This is a little bit on the special additional returns program, which we will continue to review and add to every six months. Leaving you with this view, we have delivered very strong cash flows, we have a disciplined growth to 3 million ounces per annum. We have delivered upper quartile returns and on a H1 basis, 61% of our free cash has been delivered to shareholders. In closing, we have a strong quality portfolio, strong cash flow generation, strongly funded growth pathway to 3 million ounces, demonstrated commitment to deliver upper quartile returns amongst the highest yield in our peer group, but with the lowest multiple. We have a business that delivers on our own, but we strongly believe in the combination of Northern Star, and we will continue to pursue an engagement to see where the value can be created for our shareholders.
Thank you for listening and happy to take any questions. I know I ran a little bit over.
Unfortunately, a lot to get through there and no time for questions. But thank you, Mike.
Cool.
Thank you