Gold Fields: Misfortune Again

Gold Fields lost Wednesday its fourth legal challenge to Harmony's takeover bid, when the US district court for southern New York found no fault with Harmony's gold reserve accounting report, and ruled that its offer was not compulsory.

Gold Fields called into question the quality of Harmony's reserves reporting, suggesting its reserves had been overstated by 32 percent. Reserves are the total number of ounces of gold a company is able to mine economically.