Vista Gold Corp. (NYSE American and TSX: VGZ) is pleased to provide a summary of its key accomplishments over the past year, highlighting the successful achievement of its 2024 objectives.
Frederick H. Earnest, President and CEO of Vista, commented, "At the outset of 2024, we set objectives to efficiently position Mt Todd as a top-tier gold development project while exercising the discipline necessary to best realize value at the right time. We directed our focus to the drilling program that we committed to as part of our 2023 royalty transaction and evaluating alternative development strategies for Mt Todd. Notably, we assessed opportunities to greatly reduce the initial capital requirement, raise the gold grade for material mined and processed, and retain a meaningful annual gold production level."
Mr. Earnest continued, "The drilling program was completed in December 2024, with final assay results and a recap of the overall program expected within the coming weeks. We expect this program will favorably impact our overall gold inventory at Mt Todd. One of the highlights of the program is the numerous high-grade gold intercepts encountered in Phase 2. Our evaluation of other development strategies, including the completion of trade-off studies, provided us with an internal proof-of-concept that supports the potential for an economically attractive alternative development plan for Mt Todd. Based on this work, we launched a feasibility study last month that represents a paradigm shift in the value potential of Mt Todd."
2024 Highlights
Safety and ESG
Vista maintained its focus on safety, environmental stewardship, and stakeholder interests. Mt Todd achieved zero lost-time incidents and has surpassed 1,150 days without a workplace incident. Site personnel successfully managed Mt Todd environmental initiatives with no incidents. Vista continued its engagement with the Jawoyn Association Aboriginal Corporation and other key stakeholders, with attention on transparency and maintaining strong working relationships. Details of Vista's work in these and additional areas were published in Vista's inaugural ESG report in March 2024.
2024 Drilling Program
Vista completed the 2024 drilling program in December as planned, with a total of 34 holes for 6,776 meters drilled. Phase 1 drill results were announced in August 2024 that extended the core zone and the mineralized boundaries in the northern section of the Batman deposit, including intercepts at the northern limit with gold grades that exceeded the Company's expectations. Phase 2 drilling focused on the shallow portion of the South Cross Lode ("SXL"), with interim results announced in September and October 2024. This drilling demonstrated that the SXL is host to more discreet and, in certain zones, wider higher-grade veins with thicknesses that exceed one meter, compared to the thinner, more closely spaced sheeted veins typically observed in the Batman deposit.
Results from the final four holes of Phase 2 drilling are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, followed by a comprehensive overview of the 2024 drilling program. The Company plans to incorporate the drill results into the updated Mt Todd mineral resource estimate in conjunction with the in-progress Mt Todd feasibility study.
Mt Todd Alternative Development Strategy
Concurrent with the 2024 drilling program, management undertook a series of internal assessments and trade-off studies in advance of initiating a feasibility study for an alternative development plan at Mt Todd. Key studies evaluated the economic potential for a range of processing and mining rates. Based on the results of this work, Vista launched a new Mt Todd feasibility study in December 2024 that aims to increase the reserve grade to 1 gram gold per tonne using a higher cut-off grade and reduce the initial capex by 60% to $400 million while achieving average annual gold production ranging from 150,000 to 200,000 ounces from 15,000 tonnes per day ore throughput. The consultants selected for this study have extensive Australian and international experience with projects of this scale who we believe can deliver a fit-for-purpose design that achieves the targets we have established. Completion of this feasibility study is expected mid-2025.
Update to the Mt Todd 2022 Feasibility Study
In March 2024, Vista updated the economics of its previous 2022 Mt Todd 50,000 tpd Feasibility Study to reflect Q1 2024 quotes for material capital and operating cost components. Long-term outlooks for the gold price and foreign exchange rates and the private royalty rates were also updated. This update demonstrated that project economics are approximately the same or slightly better than reported in 2022, inclusive of cost increases that have affected the entire gold mining sector.
Financial Resources
The Company's financial outlook benefited from its 2023 royalty transaction ("Royalty") and changes to the Northern Territory ("NT") royalty structure. The Royalty provided an initial $3 million to Vista in December 2023 and an additional $17 million by mid-2024. This funding placed Vista in a strong financial position as it carried out the 2024 programs and as the Company moves into the work to complete the 2025 feasibility study. The NT government enacted new royalty legislation effective July 1, 2024. The new structure includes a 3.5% ad valorum royalty rate applicable to gold doré, which is expected to reduce the Mt Todd NT royalty payable by nearly 50%.
Leadership
Mike Sylvestre and Patrick Keenan were elected as independent directors of the Company's board of directors to succeed two long-standing directors who retired. Mr. Sylvestre and Mr. Keenan bring extensive mining backgrounds to Vista, with expertise in technical and financial areas, respectively.
Vista appointed Maria Vallejo as Director, Projects and Technical Services. Ms. Vallejo is an accomplished mining professional with a robust background in mineral economics, mining engineering, and optimization technologies. She is responsible for overall management of the in-progress feasibility study.
About Vista Gold Corp.
Vista holds the Mt Todd gold project, a ready-to-build development-stage gold deposit located in the Tier-1 mining jurisdiction of Northern Territory, Australia. Vista is positioning Mt Todd as a leading development opportunity within the gold sector. Mt Todd offers significant scale, development optionality, growth opportunities, advanced local infrastructure, community support, and demonstrated economic feasibility. All major environmental and operating permits necessary to initiate development of Mt Todd are in place.
Vista's strategy is to advance Mt Todd in ways that efficiently position the project for development while exercising the discipline necessary to best realize value at the right time. Vista believes its strategy of advancing Mt Todd in this manner will deliver a more fully valued project to its shareholders.
