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Nature of Operations
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019
Nature of Operations  
Nature Of Operations

1. Nature of Operations

 

Vista operates in the gold mining industry. We are focused on the evaluation, acquisition, exploration and advancement of gold exploration, and potential development projects, that may lead to gold production or value adding strategic transactions such as earn-in right agreements, option agreements, leases to third parties, joint venture arrangements with other mining companies, or outright sales of assets for cash and/or other consideration. We look for opportunities to improve the value of our gold projects through exploration drilling and/or technical studies focused on optimizing previous engineering work. We do not currently generate cash flows from mining operations.

 

The Company’s flagship asset is its 100% owned Mt Todd gold project (“Mt Todd” or the “Project”) in the Northern Territory Australia. Mt Todd is the largest undeveloped gold project in Australia. We have invested substantial amounts to evaluate, engineer, permit and de-risk the Project. We believe these efforts have added to the underlying value of the Project and demonstrate strong development potential. In January 2018, the Company announced positive results of an updated preliminary feasibility study for Mt Todd (the “2018 PFS”). Later in 2018 and in 2019, we continued additional metallurgical testing that demonstrated improved gold recovery compared to the 2018 PFS. These test results, other findings and the outcome of an independent benchmarking study were incorporated into an updated preliminary feasibility study, which was issued in October 2019 .  

 

As of December 31, 2019, the Company holds 6.9 million shares of Midas Gold Corp. (“Midas Gold Shares”), a non-core project in Mexico subject to a third-party option agreement, royalty interests in the United States and Indonesia, and other miscellaneous holdings of third-party equity securities.

 

All dollar amounts stated herein are in U.S. dollars in thousands, except per share amounts and per warrant amounts unless specified otherwise. References to C$ refer to Canadian currency, AUD or A$ to Australian currency, and USD or $ to United States currency.