Gold Fields Limited is one of the world’s largest unhedged producers of gold with 470,000 employees across its operations. The company is focused on providing investors with maximum returns through investing in its people, technology, optimizing processes and responsible, sustainable and innovative development of quality assets.

Gold Fields has attributable production of 3.64 million ounces per annum, ore reserves of 83 million ounces and mineral resources of 251 million ounces.. The Group is listed on the JSE Limited South Africa (primary listing), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as well as the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX).

In 2005 Gold Fields Ghana and its partners confirmed an exponential result of gold deposit located in the western part of Ghana. Gold Fields Ghana has an interest in two exploration/ production mines, Tarkwa and Damang, which are viable with large commercial quantity of Gold reserves.

Connecting Ghana and South Africa
Gold Fields’ Ghana business requires effective communication between its offices to its head office in South Africa for operational excellence.

Gold Fields needed a telecommunications partner that could provide high quality and cost-effective data, voice and Internet connectivity within the sites in Ghana to its head office in South Africa and the outside world.

Gold Fields Ghana contracted GS Telecom, a Gateway Communications business, to provision a communication network between its three sites in Ghana (Accra, Tarkwa and Damang) to the head office in South Africa. Gateway Communications is the largest and most advanced provider of pan-African network services, with more than 400 direct connections into 37 African countries and a reach covering over 583 million people on the continent.

Gold Fields Ghana selected GS Telecom because of the established presence in the market, and quality of pan-African communications infrastructure.

The project and ongoing contract involved:
(i) Engineering and design
(ii) Equipment supply, installation, maintenance and support
(iii) Provision of Terrestrial links with Backup VSAT
(iv) Spares Management

The three Gold Fields Ghana sites have direct data, access to Gold Fields’ head office in Johannesburg, South Africa with a guaranteed availability of 99.5% and a full Service Level Agreement. Gold Fields Ghana offices are assigned with UK PSTN numbers that allow for voice communication between the offices to Gold Fields’ head office at a local call rate.

Quality of Service
The network is managed and monitored from Gateway’s Network Operations Centres (NOC) in Ghana, which provides primary management with 24/7 back up solutions via mobile phones to all technical managers. The fully manned NOC is the focal point for fault reporting, and is also responsible for pro-active network management of Gold Fields’ network. Users are free to contact the NOC directly or through any of Gateway’s 17 offices to log complaints or to seek on-line technical support.

Faults reported to the NOC are logged and assigned job identity numbers that can be tracked until the fault is resolved. The NOC provides reports to Gold Fields’ management on the state of the network. Gateway also provides a full escalation procedure that allows Gold Fields personnel to contact Gateway’s local management team, with regard to faults or any concerns.

The Gold Standard
“Gateway makes the difference for us. They have been our partner over the years and created a loyal customer in us. The staff has been supportive, knowledgeable, professional and very responsive to our needs. Gateway proactively monitors the network, troubleshooting and resolving problems and communicating with our team. The field crew performs regular maintenance of the equipment, and always arrives on schedule.

“We have experienced great network reliability and performance using Gateway services, and highly recommend them to anybody seeking network services in Africa.”
Steve Larbi, Group IT Manager of Goldfields Ghana.