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Valuation Allowance for Deferred Tax Assets (Detail) - USD ($) $ in Millions | Dec. 31, 2015 | Dec. 31, 2014
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Valuation Allowance [Line Items] |  |  |
Valuation allowance for deferred tax assets |  | $ 505.7 | $ 435.5
GFI Joint Venture Holdings |  |  |
Valuation Allowance [Line Items] |  |  |
Valuation allowance for deferred tax assets |  | 292.1 | 305.3
Gold Fields Operations |  |  |
Valuation Allowance [Line Items] |  |  |
Valuation allowance for deferred tax assets |  | 27.7 | 26.4
Abosso Goldfields Limited |  |  |
Valuation Allowance [Line Items] |  |  |
Valuation allowance for deferred tax assets | [1] | 25.5 |
Gold Fields La Cima |  |  |
Valuation Allowance [Line Items] |  |  |
Valuation allowance for deferred tax assets | [2] | 68.1 |
Exploration Entities |  |  |
Valuation Allowance [Line Items] |  |  |
Valuation allowance for deferred tax assets |  | $ 92.3 | $ 103.8
[1] | A full valuation allowance against the net deferred tax asset at Abosso Gold Fields Limited (Damang) was recognized in fiscal 2015, as Damang no longer has sufficient profit history and it is no longer probable that Damang will earn future taxable profits in order to utilize the net deferred tax asset.
[2] | A valuation allowance was recognized against a portion of the deferred tax asset relating to property, plant and equipment at Gold Fields La Cima in fiscal 2015, as it became probable that a portion of the gross deferred tax asset will not be recovered over the life of mine.

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- Definition Amount of deferred tax assets for which it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will not be realized. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 740 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -Subparagraph (c) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6907707&loc=d3e32537-109319 + Details
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- Definition Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table. + References No definition available. + Details
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