Golds Fields Australia wants to maintain options around its Darlot underground mine amid speculation about a sale.
The South African gold producer said it was committed to spending $7 million in exploration on the mine in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.
"We're maintaining optionality on Darlot but we are definitely committed to our full exploration spend on Darlot," Gold Fields vice president of Australia operations Stuart Mathews told reporters on the sidelines of the Diggers and Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie on Wednesday.
Gold Fields is one of WA's largest gold producers and has an annual global production of around 2.2 million ounces.
In the face of low gold prices and increased merger and acquisition activity, Mr Mathews said the company was eager to grow its Australian asset base.
He said its Australian processing plants were only 60 per cent full and Gold Fields was looking to fill those plants and drive down costs.
"We don't want to be stagnant so we need to keep exploring and keep looking at any merger and acquisition opportunities," he said.
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