VGZ - AMEX

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Vista Gold's 2025 Financial Results and Corporate Update Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Today is Friday, March 13, 2026. It's now my pleasure to introduce Pamela Solly, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, John, and good day, everyone. Thank you for joining the Vista Gold 2025 Financial Results and Corporate Update Conference Call. I'm Pamela Solly, Vice President of Investor Relations. On the call today is Fred Earnest, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Doug Tobler, Chief Financial Officer. On March 11, 2026, Vista reported its operating and financial results for the year ended December 31, 2025. Copies of the news release and the annual report on Form 10-K are available on our website at www.vistagold.com. During the course of this call and the question-and-answer session, we will be making forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Vista to be materially different from results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Please refer to our most recently filed Form 10-K for details of risks and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements and the cautionary note regarding estimates of mineral resources and mineral reserves. I'll now turn the call over to Fred Earnest.

Thank you, Pam, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today. We'll begin with an overview of our 2025 achievements and then discuss our outlook for 2026. Our achievements in 2025 underscore our commitment to creating greater value for our shareholders and positioning Vista and Mt Todd for long-term success. 2025 was a pivotal year for our company. The completion of the Mt Todd feasibility study in July marked an important milestone for both the project and Vista. Throughout the year, we remain focused on safety, environmental stewardship, financial discipline and delivering value for our shareholders. In November, we surpassed 4 years without a workplace incident and maintained 0 reportable environmental events and ended the year with a strong treasury. further strengthened by a recent equity raise that will support permitting, technical studies and early engineering work as we continue to advance Mt Todd. Earlier this week, we closed a $44.85 million public offering, and we're pleased with the demand and broad range of interest from resource investors. We are committed to prioritizing the efficient use of our cash and creating value for our shareholders through disciplined execution of our strategy for the Mt Todd gold project. I will discuss some of these topics in greater detail later in the call, but I'll now turn the time over to Doug Tobler for a review of our financial results for the year ended December 31, 2025.

Thank you, Fred. Thanks, everybody, for joining the call as well. My comments today will provide a recap of our financial position and results of operation as presented in our 2025 Form 10-K. For additional details about our audited financial statements, this 10-K is available for review at sec.gov or sedarplus.ca. And all of the amounts that I mentioned today will be in U.S. dollars. Vista ended 2025 with cash on hand of $13.6 million and has recently completed an equity offering with net proceeds of $41.9 million. Securing these funds comes at a very important time because it provides Vista with immediate ability to fund the programs that Fred will mention later in this discussion. We are now well positioned from a financial perspective to execute on our objective to begin detailed engineering in 2027. We also continue to have a clean balance sheet with no debt. Turning to our results of operations. 2025 concluded as we expected with the majority of our expenditures relating to Mt Todd, while we held our corporate costs consistent with 2024. Overall, Vista reported a net loss of $7.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2025. This compared to net income of $11.2 million for 2024. The swing between years is largely accounted for by 3 things. First, we recognized a $16.9 million gain in 2024 that related to our grant of a royalty interest to Wheaton Precious Metals. Secondly, during 2024, we capitalized a $1.9 million of drilling and other cost expenditures that qualified as development costs. And lastly, we sold used mill equipment in 2024 for net proceeds of $800,000. Key components of our results of operations include Mt Todd-related expenditures and corporate administration. Our exploration and other expenses for Mt Todd were $5.6 million in 2025 compared to $3.5 million in 2024. This variance is mostly the result of having capitalized $1.9 million of development costs in '24, as I mentioned previously. Aside from our recurring site-related activities at Mt Todd, our priorities in '25 were largely associated with completing the 2025 feasibility study, while in '24, we carried out a drilling program in the area of the Batman pit and the South Cross Lode. And as I mentioned, we continue to hold our corporate administration expenses steady on a year-over-year basis. In 2025, these expenses totaled $3.6 million compared to $3.7 million for 2024. That concludes my remarks. I'll turn the call back to Fred now. Thank you.

Thank you, Doug. As I indicated previously, in July of 2025, we completed a new feasibility study for our Mt Todd gold project that presents a new vision for the project as a 15,000 tonne per day operation. The completion of the new feasibility study was a defining moment for Mt Todd and Vista. The study demonstrates an achievable path to near-term production centered on a smaller, initial operation that prioritizes higher grade ore to the processing plant, significantly lowers initial capital costs and incorporates contract services to reduce development and operational risks. At the feasibility study gold price of $2,500 per ounce, the net present value at a 5% discount rate or NPV5 was estimated to be $1.1 billion. The internal rate of return was estimated to be 27.8% and the payback period was 2.7 years. At a $3,300 gold price, the NPV5 was estimated to be $2.2 billion with an IRR or internal rate of return of 44.7% and a payback period of 1.7 years. At a $5,000 gold price, the NPV5 is estimated to be $4.5 billion, and the IRR is estimated to be 74.5% with a 1.3-year payback period. For additional information on the feasibility study results, please refer to Vista's news release dated July 29, 2025, and the feasibility study presentation, both of which can be found on our company website. Since completing the 2025 feasibility study, we have prioritized work to support the start of detailed engineering and design. Recent drilling has provided core for selective metallurgical testing to confirm grind size, gold recoveries and optimal selection and sizing of grinding equipment. We have completed a preliminary geotechnical review to assess the opportunity to steepen the west pit wall, reduce stripping and potentially convert additional mineral resources to mineral reserves. I'm pleased to report that based on this review, we plan to commence geotechnical drilling at the conclusion of the wet season at Mt Todd, in other words, in the next month or so, and complete a new geotechnical study for the Batman pit. During the fourth quarter of 2025, we began the process of modifying our existing key permits to align with the designs and operating plans in the 2025 Mt Todd feasibility study. Applications were submitted for several modifications with additional applications planned for this year. In January, we hired an approvals manager, Dr. Francis Kuranchie, to complement our operations team in Darwin. His primary responsibility is to manage the permit modification and approval processes. Talking for a moment about safety and ESG. Throughout 2025, we remain firmly committed to safety, environmental stewardship and the interest of our stakeholders. In November, we've surpassed 4 consecutive years without a workplace incident, which is a testament to our strong safety culture. Our site team continued to successfully advance Mt Todd's environmental initiatives with 0 reportable incidents and management continued its proactive engagement with the Jawoyn Aboriginal Association Corporation and other key stakeholders. In 2026, we are focused on building the technical and organizational foundation required for project execution. This includes advancing the technical studies I mentioned earlier, completing ongoing permit modification activities and building an Australian-based team to lead the development and operation of Mt Todd. This team is expected to include a small executive group based in Perth and a larger operational presence based in the Northern Territory. In addition to the recently hired approvals manager in February, we announced 2 key appointments to our Perth team, including an Executive General Manager of Projects and Technical Services and an Executive General Manager of External Relations and Social Performance. We expect to make additional announcements in the coming months as we continue to add to our project team. Completing this work is an important prerequisite to initiating detailed engineering and design, which we expect to begin in 2027. The decision to commence detailed engineering and design is expected to mark the start of an approximately 27-month period of design, construction and commissioning, culminating in first gold production. Looking ahead, we believe Mt Todd holds tremendous intrinsic value and represents an exceptional investment opportunity at conservative long-term gold prices. With an all-in sustaining cost of roughly $1,500 per ounce and a very conservative gold price of $3,300 per ounce, the Mt Todd project will generate $300 million of free cash flow annually. At a $2,500 gold price, the study net asset value per share is $7.31 per share on the currently number of issued and outstanding shares. And at a $3,300 gold price, the study net asset value per share is $14.89 per share, which is a little over 7x our current share price. We are very pleased with our share price performance in 2025, which reflects not only the rising gold price but also the market's strong support of the new Mt Todd 15,000 tonne per day feasibility study. For the year ended 2025, Vista's shares increased almost 252% compared to the year-end 2024. Following our recent financing that closed earlier this week, our current market capitalization is approximately $300 million. We anticipate that sustained strength in the gold price will continue to positively influence Vista's share price performance. Today, with higher gold prices and growing investor interest, Mt Todd is positioned as one of the most attractive development stage projects in the gold sector. Its strong project economics, favorable jurisdiction, permitting status and existing infrastructure make it well suited for near-term development. we are confident that this is the right market environment in which to advance Mt Todd. In conclusion, Vista is committed to seeing Mt Todd developed in compliance with the highest mining and ESG standards, and we will work diligently toward that goal. For more information about Mt Todd and Vista Gold, I refer you to our corporate presentation, which can be found on our website at www.vistagold.com. We believe that Vista Gold represents an exceptional investment opportunity and at current prices represent a tremendous opportunity to establish a position or increase one's holdings in Vista Gold. This concludes my formal remarks, and we will now respond to any questions from participants on the call.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle from H.C. Wainwright.

It's [indiscernible] calling on behalf of Heiko. First question, given recent geopolitical events around the world, could you maybe provide a bit of color on where you see discount rates for projects in geopolitically safe jurisdictions such as yours headed?

Doug, would you like to respond to that?

Well, I think what you're going to see is for projects like Mt Todd sitting in the Northern Territory, which is really a Tier 1 jurisdiction. I think discount rates will be better. I think cost of debt will be better as we look to finance the project. And I think when you're looking at the NAV of the project, you can probably think in terms of a lower risk factor, so a lower discount rate. Anything that's within reach of the current conflicts and potential other conflicts, I think, will really struggle in the next couple of years.

And second question, we're still over $5,000 for gold and obviously, the value of Mt Todd is very sensitive to the price of gold. And in Australian dollar terms, we're pretty close to an all-time high. What kind of rumblings have you heard in regards to input cost changes given recent strength in gold price? And maybe if you could provide a bit of color on what concerns you may have with issues related to construction costs, if anything?

That's an interesting question. It's something that all of us are continually watching. While the gold price has gone up in the last 9 months significantly, so far and with the exception of the last week or so in Australia, fuel prices have remained pretty constant. Obviously, what's going on in the Middle East right now is affecting global energy costs, and we will continue to watch that. That's obviously one area of concern. You'll know that we intend to generate power for the project using natural gas, which is produced in the Northern Territory. And so far, we don't see any indications that natural gas prices are being affected by what's happening there. So we continue to watch these events and as they unfold worldwide. Certainly, it's reasonable to expect some modest increase year-on-year in equipment costs and what will ultimately be the construction costs of the project. But at this point in time, we don't see any real significant changes that would dissuade our views on Mt Todd. I would just want to add one final comment, and that is that Mt Todd is very leveraged to the price of gold. And certainly, the gold prices that we are seeing today and have seen since we completed the study in July certainly highlight the tremendous leverage that we have to the gold price in a very positive way.

Our next question comes from the line of Mike Schultz from -- a private investor.

My question, so it looks like the strategy now is pretty much to proceed with mining -- Vista mining the Mt Todd themselves, still open to a partnership because of indications of hiring management team and whatnot. In terms of when -- 27 months has been thrown out in terms of when gold could actually start being produced, but it's been thrown out over a couple of month period of time. So from like today, when would be the soonest that if no partner showed up that -- the first ounce could be produced. And I know it's an estimate, by the way, so...

Yes. Well, that's entirely dependent on the start of detailed engineering and design. What we've disclosed publicly is that looking at where we're at with the permit modification process that we expect that, that will occur in 2027. I think our best estimate today would be that we'll be in a position to make that decision mid-2027. So if you want to add 27 months on to that date, that will give you a rough estimate of when we would expect to see first gold poured.

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Johnson, private investor.

I just had 2 questions. One, so we just saw that you guys issued a bunch of additional outstanding shares in order to finance this part of the project. So if you guys do go -- I just want to know what your guys' options or your outlook on financing ahead and I guess, to the concern of the current shareholders that we're going to get diluted. So I just didn't know if you could speak on that a little bit.

Yes, I'll let Doug answer that. What's your second question, so we can address them orderly here.

And then my second question is, I noticed -- I don't know if it was Q3 or Q4 of last year that Sun Valley Gold was -- it seemed like they were dumping a lot of your share -- of the shares of their holdings of Vista Gold. I didn't know if you guys had any more information about that or why that would be happening or anything?

Yes, certainly. I'll respond to the second question, but first, let Doug respond to the question about financing.

Sure. So if you look at the production profile for Mt Todd, it's one of the better projects I've seen in terms of structuring for financing. And financing in this day and age can take many different forms. It doesn't have to be just traditional bank debt, but that's obviously a very common source. And frankly, there's a lot of deals getting done that way as well. But if you take a project that's got the Mt Todd production profile, which is 3 years of roughly 175,000 ounces and then about 15 more years after that at very steady 150,000 ounces, that's exactly what lenders like to see. They like to see big cash flow upfront, so they can get paid back and then that puts the shareholders in line after that. So we're at the very front end of that process of looking at what avenue of leverage we'll put on the project, but early numbers would tell us that something in the order of 65% to 70% of the project can be financed, I'll call it debt, but levered. And then the balance of that would have to be equity. So when we look at what that does on a shareholder basis, on a per share basis, one of the critical things for us is making sure that we get to pay back quickly for shareholders and also that when we're done with the financing, it's accretive. So even though we will still have to issue shares for that additional 30-odd percent of the project financing, we look at it from the standpoint of where are we today. And then if we look at what our potential net asset value can be once the project is built and cash flowing and you actually switch from somewhat of an NAV model to more of a times free cash flow basis, we see the uplift as very, very significant. And when you divide that new valuation once you're in operations by an estimate of what your shares would be, it's still quite accretive to see the project go into operations. And you can see that with a number of other companies that as they ramp up towards production and get into production, their share prices move quite dramatically upward. So that's the direction that we're trying to head. So yes, there will be more shares out, but we're very focused on making sure the outcome of that on a per share basis is actually accretive, not dilutive.

And Michael, with regard to your question about Sun Valley Gold, we are aware that the Sun Valley Gold Fund, who was previously a large shareholder of Vista Gold has been converted to a family office and that managed funds have been redistributed to individual investors or may have been sold. And we don't know the exact numbers. What we can disclose is what's publicly available is that Peter Palmedo, who was the President of Sun Valley Gold Fund personally holds about 933,000 shares and there's another 2.6 million shares or so that are held in Palmedo Holdings LLP. We believe that there are several tranches of a couple of million shares that were distributed to investors that continue to hold those shares in Vista Gold. But I think that the important answer to your question is that this was not necessarily Sun Valley Gold selling shares because they no longer liked Vista Gold, but rather Sun Valley Gold Fund winding down and redistributing. But because of the reporting requirements, that reporting showed up as sales when, in fact, it may not have been. So Peter Palmedo individually continues to be a very strong holder of Vista Gold as manifested by the roughly 3.5 million shares that he continues to hold as a personal investment. And the rest of that holding was obviously managed money, and we don't know with certainty whether those funds were ultimately sold or continue to be held. I hope that helps.

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Fred Earnest. Please continue, sir.

Thank you, John. And again, thank you to all of you who have taken time to join the call today. As we look backward at 2025, we see that, that was a very successful year, a pivotal year for the project and for Vista Gold, obviously, additionally for the sector as a whole with the tremendous rise in the gold price. The feasibility study that we completed in July has changed the course and the trajectory for developing Mt Todd. This year, we have a very exciting year before us. As I indicated, we are adding people to our team to form the basis for the technical and organizational team that will advance and build and operate Mt Todd. And I'm very pleased with the quality of people that we've been able to attract to our organization and look forward to announcements that we'll make in the coming months as we continue to build this team. As we indicated, we have commenced the process of modifying the permits that we hold and to align them with the designs and operational plans as defined in the July 2025 feasibility study. I'm very excited to have an approvals manager, Dr. Kuranchie on our team managing those efforts, and we have filed some of those modification applications, and we'll be filing other applications in the near future and as the year goes on. Third is the work that we're doing with the technical studies. And these studies are laying the groundwork for the start of detailed engineering and design. They will be providing some of the final answers to questions that were identified as part of the feasibility study. The core has been cut and is ready to be shipped from the Mt Todd site and we'll be going to the assay lab here in the coming weeks. The geotechnical program, the driller has been selected and we're waiting for a little bit of a break in the weather at Mt Todd to be able to get him on site and start drilling. And we're very excited about that. We'll also be doing some test work and confirmation work related to the design of a water treatment plant for the site. So these things are all progressing. I'm very pleased with the support that was shown to us as a management team and to the project in the form of the financing. We're delighted to have a number of new core shareholders in the register, and we're thankful for their support, and we look forward to an ongoing relationship with each of them. I'm excited about the prospects for this year. I think that as we continue to advance that we will see tremendous growth in the share price and the value -- shareholder value for Vista Gold. I'm grateful for each of you for taking time to join us on the call this morning. Certainly, as you may have further questions, I invite you to reach out to Pamela Solly, our Vice President of Investor Relations. And if needs to be, Pam will connect you with the appropriate technical people or other in the company to help you fully understand and getting answered your questions. With that, I again thank you and encourage you to join us in this journey of value creation. I think that there's a tremendous opportunity before us. And I thank you for joining us and wish each of you a very pleasant and a very happy day.