Gold Fields Limited has issued a formal apology to employees who have endured bullying, sexual harassment, racism, and other forms of discrimination.

The apology follows the results of a comprehensive review conducted by the company, which uncovered troubling patterns of inappropriate behaviour among its workforce.

The review revealed that over 47 per cent of its employees had encountered some form of inappropriate conduct in the workplace.

Interim CEO Martin Peerce expressed deep distress at the results and pledged to implement the recommendations arising from the report.

Gold Fields Limited operates in six countries, including Western Australia's Goldfields, where it manages projects such as Gruyere, St Ives, Granny Smith, and Agnew.

In the previous year, the company commissioned an independent report on workplace culture by the same firm responsible for Rio Tinto's 2022 culture review, Elizabeth Broderick and Co.

The review disclosed that more than half of the participating employees reported experiencing various forms of inappropriate or harmful behaviour, including 47 per cent encountering bullying.

Additionally, the study revealed that 23 per cent of women and 7 per cent of men reported incidents of sexual harassment, while 15 per cent had faced racism.

“It's distressing and hugely disappointing,” Preece said. 

“We don't want to be known as a business where that kind of behaviour is going on. We have a much bigger problem to deal with than we envisaged, and we will make work of it now.”

The Gold Fields review comes as the mining industry as a whole grapples with addressing workplace culture and unacceptable behaviour.

Earlier this month, the Western Australian government organised a mining industry summit to promote respect in the workplace and encourage leaders to take meaningful action against sexual harassment.

Martin Preece says he has committed to implementing the report's recommendations, including changes to facilities and the policy framework.

“We certainly see a big part of this is how to change our culture,” he said. 

“The one priority I have to land is getting the culture of our business right.”

Gold Fields intends to confront these issues transparently rather than hiding them. Preece believes that acknowledging their challenges will motivate them to lead change within the mining industry.

“I have no issue with this [report] being public,” he said. 

“It will just serve as a further motivator for us to live up to what we believe we are and should be.”

Gold Fields has committed to conducting another review in three years to assess the progress made in addressing these critical issues.