Vista Gold reported the Northern Territory Government has released the final report of the Mineral Development Taskforce. The Report outlines a series of recommendations and actions to increase and enhance the competitiveness of the Northern Territory as an investment destination and to position the NT to achieve its economic growth targets by 2030. Frederick H. Earnest, President and CEO, stated: "The Report includes recommendations that will improve the NT’s position as a leading destination for mining investment. As these recommendations are implemented, we expect the Company’s Mt Todd gold project to benefit in several ways. "Most notably, the Report emphasizes the importance of updating the current royalties regime to make it more competitive and developing local skills to support the mining industry. This potentially means moving to a simpler ad valorum royalty structure and aligning the royalty rate more closely with other Tier 1 mining jurisdictions where rates typically range from 2.5%-5%. This represents a very meaningful opportunity for improved project economics and earlier shareholder returns at Mt Todd, where our 2022 feasibility study included NT royalties equivalent to a 7%-9% ad valorum rate, depending on the gold price and other assumptions. Skills development will also be an important benefit given that we support the use of a local work force at Mt Todd over more traditional fly-in/fly-out approaches common elsewhere in Australia."
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