Vista Gold Corp. (NYSE:VGZ) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And all of a sudden, companies who we thought would be ideal partners and candidates for a transaction announcing that they were putting evaluations of development stage projects on the back burner, some of them for as long as four to six quarters. So the failure of things to move to the completion of a transaction today is the disappointment. But the other side of it is that the confirmation of the technical merits of the project and the confirmation of the extensive amount of work that Vista has completed on a budget that’s far less than what other companies would have spent has been very satisfying, and confirms that our patience is justified that there’s no reason for us to be in a hurry to complete a transaction that we do have genuinely a world class asset.

And that ultimately gives us confidence that we will be able to complete a transaction at the right time that will reward our shareholders.

Adrian Day: Okay, that’s really helpful. Thank you.

Frederick Earnest: Thank you for the question.

Operator: Thank you. .

Frederick Earnest: Jenny, it appears that we have no other questions.

Operator: Yes, sir. There are no further questions at this time. Please go ahead.

Frederick Earnest: All right. Well, thank you everyone for taking time to join us for this update and discussion of our first quarter results. We’re very excited about the implications of the recommendations of the Northern Territory’s mineral development taskforce, the potential impact of reducing the effective ad valorem rate from 7% to 9% that we saw in the feasibility study under a different royalty regime to something more competitive with other jurisdictions has tremendous impact for the project. As we’ve discussed in response to questions, the field exploration programs will be kicking off soon with the onset of the dry season. We’re very pleased with the progress that’s being made at Mount Todd in those regards. We’re very pleased with our track record for environmental compliance, health and safety of our employees.

And we look forward to moving forward with the newly configured Board of Directors as we seek to and focus on maximizing shareholder value. Again, we reiterate that our work with CIBC Capital Markets is focused on generating the realization of the maximum value, full value for the Mount Todd project, and that we’ll continue to hold the line on that. While there were questions about developing Mount Todd at a smaller scale, I wish to reiterate that we have no intentions at this time to develop Mount Todd on our own. We see that there’s better ways to generate value for shareholders through being patient and waiting for the right transaction. With that, I’ll conclude our remarks. We thank you for your time and interest. We invite you to seriously consider either increasing your position in Vista Gold or initiating a holding, and we look forward to seeing all of you and meeting you and having you as shareholders.

And with that, we wish you all a pleasant day.

Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for participating. You may all disconnect.

Correction: The previous version of this article mentioned wrong trading exchange for Vista Gold. The article was corrected at 4:00 PM ET, May 9, to reflect the trading exchange of the company as NYSE.