Gold Fields 1H17 Profit Down 54% at $53 Million, Revenue Up 2.3% at $1.33 Billion

South African mining company Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI.JO) said Thursday that profits tumbled during the first half of 2017, due to a stronger rand currency, an increase in amortization and reinvestment in its mines to sustain production and lower costs.

The world's eighth-largest producer of the precious metal reported a profit of $53 million for the six months ended June 30, down 54% from the first half of 2016. The company's headline earnings per share, which strip out certain exceptional and one-off items, were 9 cents for the six months to end June from a 15 cents a share during the same period a year earlier.

Gold Fields, which mines in South Africa, Ghana, Peru and Australia, said it would pay a first-half dividend of 40 South African rand cents a share, up from a dividend of ZAR0.50 a share (0.38 U.S. cents) in the January-to-June period last year.

For the first half of 2017, revenue rose 2.3% from the previous year to $1.33 billion.

Write to Alexandra Wexler at alexandra.wexler@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 17, 2017 01:54 ET (05:54 GMT)