Gold Fields has confirmed that it is planning to drop its pgm exploration activity in Finland.

The firm's Arctic Platinum project, which had been tipped to deliver profitable pgm results, is now to be abandoned.

In a statement Gold Fields said it would ditch the open pit pgm facility because of rising expenditure and the increase in costs.

“During the quarter the feasibility study was completed and it has been determined that, at this stage, we will not be proceeding with the development of the large scale Suhanko Project,” said Gold Fields as it published its latest results.

Gold Fields head of international operations, John Munro, said that raw materials prices were having a major impact on the firm's prospects and the industry as a whole was dealing with cost issues.