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Vista Gold Corp. Announces Agreement to Purchase the Mt. Todd Gold Mine, Northern Territory, Australia
Vista Gold Corp. Announces Agreement to Purchase the Mt. Todd Gold Mine, Northern Territory, Australia.
About this update from Vista Gold Corp
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n\nDENVER, Feb. 28 /CNW/ -- Vista Gold Corp.\n(Amex: VGZ; TSX) is pleased to announce that it has signed agreements on\nMarch 1 (Australia time) with Ferrier Hodgson, the Deed Administrators (\"Deed\nAdministrators\") for Pegasus Gold Australia Pty Ltd. (\"Pegasus\"), the\ngovernment of the Northern Territory of Australia (\"Territory\") and the Jawoyn\nAssociation Aboriginal Corporation (\"JAAC\"), subject to regulatory approval,\nto purchase the Mt. Todd gold mine in the Northern Territory, Australia. As\npart of the agreements, Vista has agreed to undertake a technical and economic\nreview of the mine and possibly form one or more joint ventures with the JAAC.\nThe agreement negotiated with the Deed Administrators calls for Vista to\npay to Pegasus AUD $1,000,000 and for Vista to receive a transfer of the\nmineral leases and certain mine assets together with an assignment of all\nrights of Pegasus to the Mt. Todd property.\nThe agreement with the Territory is for an initial term of five years\ncommencing January 1, 2006, with an extension of five years at Vista's option\nand three additional years possible at the option of the Territory. During\nthe first year of the term, Vista will undertake a comprehensive technical and\nenvironmental review of the project to evaluate current site environmental\nconditions to result in a program to stabilize environmental conditions and\nminimize offsite contamination, review the water management plan with\nrecommendations, and produce a technical report for the re-start of\noperations. During the term of the agreement, Vista will examine all\ntechnical economic and environmental issues, estimate site rehabilitation\ncosts, explore and evaluate the potential of the project, and prepare a\ntechnical and economic feasibility study for the potential development of\nMt. Todd.\nVista will pay the Territory's costs of management and operation of the\nMt. Todd site up to a maximum of AUD $375,000 during the first year of the\nterm, and assume site management and pay management and operation costs in\nfollowing years. In the agreement, the Territory acknowledges its commitment\nto rehabilitate the site and that Vista has no rehabilitation obligations for\npre-existing conditions until it submits and receives approval of a Mine\nManagement Plan for the resumption of mining operations. Vista ...