Thompson hopes to keep costs down

"Without intervention, as we calculate it, Aids will cost us about $10 an ounce (in health costs)," chairman and chief executive of Gold Fields Chris Thompson said while attending the Australian Gold Conference.

"With interventions ... we can probably get it down to about $4. Of that cost, we are probably absorbing 35% now," Mr Thompson said.

Gold Fields mines about 4.7 million ounces a year, currently at an average cost near $170 an ounce, Mr Thompson said.

The price of gold, which is currently hovering around $300 per ounce, means most mining operations "can't really be profitably developed," Mr Thompson said.

Economic cost

HIV, which can lead to the Aids virus, infects about one in nine South Africans, or about 20% of the adult population.

Gold Fields has been barred from screening employees for HIV/Aids since 1998, but estimates more than a quarter of its 50,000 strong workforce is HIV positive, Mr Thompson said.

The company already runs a number of intervention and home care programmes.

South Africa's Bureau for Economic Research says that because of Aids, South Africa's economy is likely to grow 1.5 percentage points less by 2010 and 5.7 percentage points less by 2015, than if it did not exist.