Vista Gold Corp. announced plans to initiate a program at the Company's 100%-owned Mt Todd gold project ("Mt Todd" or "Project") directed at increasing near surface gold resources and further evaluating a staged development strategy. This program will build upon the extensive body of data underlying the Company's 2022 feasibility study (the "2022 Feasibility Study"), its 2023 internal scoping-level study (the "2023 Scoping Study"), and previous drilling in the area immediately adjacent to the Batman deposit.

Staged development offers the distinct advantage of requiring substantially lower initial capital while retaining the longer-term potential to achieve world-class production levels. The 2023 Scoping Study indicated that a nominal 5 million tonne per year project could be designed and constructed with an initial capital expenditure of less than USD 350 million, utilizing contract mining, and would achieve initial production in the range of 150,000 - 200,000 ounces of gold per year at very competitive all-in sustaining costs. For information on the 2023 Scoping Study.

Vista plans to commence a targeted drilling program of 6,000 - 7,000 meters. The focus will be the area immediately adjacent to the Batman deposit along the strike of the Batman main core zone and extending approximately 400 meters north of the existing Batman pit. This area includes inferred gold resources which were classified as waste in the 2022 Feasibility Study and areas where there has been insufficient drilling to define a mineral resource.

The objective of this drilling program is to upgrade the inferred gold resources to the measured and indicated resource categories within 300 meters of the surface at grades consistent with the current Batman deposit average and to further define the uncategorized mineralization in this area. It is uncertain if further drilling will result in the inferred gold resources being upgraded to the measured and indicated resource categories or that uncategorized mineralization target areas will be delineated as mineral resources. As drilling progresses, Vista expects to undertake additional technical studies to advance the staged development strategy.

Most technical information is already available from the 2022 Feasibility Study; therefore, new studies are expected to be limited to confirming the mineralogy and metallurgical characteristics of new gold resources, conducting tradeoff studies covering a range of staged expansion alternatives, and developing layouts for the processing plant and other facilities.