It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Hanson in 1988.

[1] Until the 1970s, it was predominantly a mining finance house receiving income from passive investments.

[2] After the 1970s it transformed itself into natural resource group concentrating on a relatively small number of minerals.

[4] Consolidated Gold Fields played a key role in ending apartheid in South Africa; Michael Young, the company's public affairs director embarked on the controversial course of initiating secret discussions between the South African government and the African National Congress at Mells Park House in the company's estate in Somerset.

This ultimately resulted in the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the handover of power to majority rule: the events are described in book The Fall of Apartheid by Robert Harvey and the 2009 television film Endgame.