Vista improves forecast at Amayapampa project

With a refashioned feasibility study in hand, Vista Gold (VGZ-T) anticipates higher production from the Amayapampa project in central Bolivia.

The company intends to boost daily throughput to 2,475 tons, which translates into a 50,100 oz. per year over the first five years of a 12-year mine life. (The original feasibility study called for throughput of 3,600 tons per day.)

Cash costs are estimated at US$157 per oz., which, based on a gold price of US$300 per oz., works out to a 17.3% after-tax internal rate-of-return.

Reserves at the Amayapampa deposit total about 10.7 million tons grading 0.051 oz. gold per ton, equivalent to 548,000 oz. The project also encompasses the Capa Circa deposit, which has an indicated resource of roughly 198,000 tons grading 0.23 oz. per ton. Ores from both deposits will be passed through a gravity and carbon-in-leach circuit, which is expected to recover 85% of the metal.

Overall construction costs are pegged at US$26 million. A building permit for the Amayapampa deposit is already in hand, and permitting for Capa Circa is under way.

Meanwhile, closer to home at the Hycroft gold mine in northern Nevada, Vista is embarking on a US$400,000 program aimed at expanding the now-dormant Brimstone deposit. Crews will carry out a total of 17,000 ft. of drilling.

Reserves mined to date at Brimstone contained 30% more gold than originally projected, and Vista hopes to prove that the mine can produce 50,000-70,000 oz. per year over the next five years at cash costs of US$220-250 per oz.

Elsewhere in the state, Vista is ramping up production at the Mineral Ridge gold mine. The company resumed production at the mine, 20 miles west of Goldfields, in November 1998, and by the end of February 1999, the plant was cranking out 100 oz. per day. Vista anticipates first-quarter production of 3,500 oz., with planned capacity of more than 10,000 oz. expected in the second quarter. Cash costs for 1999 are pegged at US$226 per oz. on production of as much as 45,000 oz.

Proven and probable reserves at Mineral Ridge stand at 241,000 oz. within 4 million tons grading 0.06 oz. per ton.

For 1998, Vista posted a net loss of US$1.6 million (or 2 cents per share) on gold revenue of US$37 million, compared with a net loss of US$54 million (61 cents per share) on revenue of US$40.1 million in 1997.

The company produced 112,838 oz. gold and 235,784 oz. silver in 1998, compared with 117,378 oz. and 479,920 oz. in the previous year.