Vista Gold Corp. (VGZ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Vista Gold Feasibility Study Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Today is Wednesday, February 9, 2022. It is now my pleasure to introduce Pamela Solly, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sade. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining the Vista Gold Investor Conference Call and Webcast. I'm Pamela Solly, Vice President of Investor Relations. On the call today is Fred Earnest, President and Chief Executive Officer; Doug Tobler, Chief Financial Officer; and John Rozelle, Senior Vice President. During the course of this call, 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 and Form 10-Q for the notes regarding forward-looking statements and details of risks and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements. Today's presentation will be posted to the Vista Gold website at www.vistagold.com at the end of this call. I will now turn the call over to Fred Earnest.

Thank you, Pam. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for your interest in Vista Gold and for investing your time in learning more about our Mt Todd project. Completing the Mt Todd feasibility study with the exceptional potential it demonstrates is among the most important milestone we have achieved in bringing Mt Todd to a development-ready stage. We believe Mt Todd's location, scale, project economics, permitting status and deep pool of extensive technical work represent a unique development opportunity and allow us to evaluate a broad range of development partners, structures and alternatives as we continue to focus on maximizing shareholder value. The feasibility study affirms the strength of Mt Todd's gold production capacity and ability to deliver solid economic results at a time when inflationary pressures are having significant impacts on operating mines and development projects alike. By using fourth quarter 2021 quotes and costs, we feel this feasibility study fairly reflects recent market conditions. While we believe this inflationary trend is transitory, the resilience of Mt Todd is amply demonstrated by the robust project economics reflected in the feasibility study. Mt Todd's location, scale, permitting status and our comprehensive understanding of every key project component creates a valuable optionality in the approach to its development. There are a couple of important improvements in this study that warrant mentioning. First and foremost, gold reserves increased by 19% and now stand at 7 million ounces. This was made possible by a stronger current and sustained gold price, which allowed us to make a couple of minor changes to the assumptions used to estimate reserves. As a result, payable gold is estimated to increase by 1 million ounces over preliminary feasibility study completed in 2019. This alone has an exceptional demonstration of the underlying value we expect to unlock. Mt Todd economics will also benefit from our decision to have a third party build, own and operate the power plant. In doing so, we have achieved capital cost savings and eliminated a number of construction and operating risks while retaining attractive operating costs. This feasibility study, along with having secured all key operating and environmental permits needed to proceed with development, distinguishes Mt Todd as a unique development opportunity. Our attention will now focus more intensely on increasing shareholder value and realizing the intrinsic value of Mt Todd. We have confidence in the prospects for accomplishing these goals as we look to a broad range of potential development partners, structures and alternatives that are possible with the Mt Todd feasibility study now complete. As we go through the slide presentation -- I guess this is a question really quick for Roberto. Is everyone able to see the slides? I was just passed a note saying to share my screen. I'm going to proceed on the premise that everyone can see my slides. And if not, if the operator, please let us know. Just by way of introduction, the feasibility study demonstrates that Mt Todd is a world-class development stage opportunity in Australia. As I noted, all key operating and environmental permits have been approved. The project has exceptional scale with 7 million ounces of proven and probable reserves, which results in a life of mine average annual gold production of 395,000 ounces of gold per year. Over the first 7 years of the project, that's 479,000 ounces of gold per year. The mine life has increased to 16 years, and there are multiple targets for extension of the mine life. The project demonstrates robust economics at a gold price very close to today's spot price. The economics demonstrated a net present value at a 5% discount rate of $1.5 billion with a 26.7% IRR. Payback is enhanced by an all-in sustaining cost in the first 7 years of the project of $860. We believe that the project is derisked and development-ready. We have used modern and efficient equipment in the design of a very conventional process plant and process flow seat. There are immediate benefits to the project of the existing infrastructure and site location. We enjoy very strong social license locally and also, in a broader sense, within the Northern Territory of Australia. Summarizing the results of the feasibility study. As I indicated, proven and probable reserves have increased by 19% and now total 6.98 million ounces of gold, has founded 280.4 million tonnes with an average rate of 0.77 grams per tonne. Of note, with the ore sorting that's included in our process flow sheet, the average grade of material that will be delivered to the grinding circuit will be 0.84 grams per tonne average over the life of the project. John Rozelle will talk more about the reserves in a moment. But for your information, reserves are conservatively estimated based on $1,125 gold price and the 0.35 gram per tonne cutoff grade. These are very conservative numbers compared to many of our peers. The cutoff grade that we have used is above our breakeven and internal cutoff grades and thus has a profit margin designed into the design of the pit. The economics calculated at a $1,600 gold price and a $0.71 foreign exchange rate with the costs obtained through quotes and estimates in the fourth quarter of 2021 include the inflationary increases that our industry has been subject to the after-tax NPV 5 at $1,600 at a $0.71 foreign exchange rate, the after-tax NPV is estimated to be just shy of $1 billion with a 20.6% IRR. At an $1,800 gold price, the after-tax NPV 5 is $1.5 billion with a 26.7% IRR. The initial CapEx of the project has increased by 8% and is now estimated to be $892 million. This results in a capital efficiency or use of capital on a per ounce of gold produced basis of $141. We believe that this is a very admirable number, and we worked hard to achieve it. Looking at the first 7 years of production commencing at the completion of ramp-up and commissioning, the average annual gold production will be 479,000 ounces of gold per year with average cash operating margin of $406 million per year during that period. Average cash costs are estimated to be $752 an ounce with an all-in sustaining cost of $860 an ounce on average over the 7 years. After-tax cash flow at $1,800 is estimated to be $2.1 billion over the 7 years. Part of the reason that we've successfully controlled the capital cost is that we've made the decision to include third-party power generation in our designs. This insulates the project from certain capital, construction and operating risk. The project designs are aligned with the approved mining management plan and environmental authorizations and we recognize that due to the increased size of the project that we will be amending the mine management plan in the coming months. Summarizing the feasibility study result in a little bit more detail. You can see in the table on this slide that we have broken the numbers down by first 7 years, the second 7 years and then life of mine. The initial CapEx is $892 million sustaining capital over the life of the project will be $663 million. The project has designed 50,000 tonnes per day for 17.75 million tonnes per annum. Gold grade over the average gold grade over the first 7 years will be 1.01 grams per tonne. That's the grade that's delivered to the grinding circuit. Gold recovery will be 91.6% over the life of the project. In the first 7 years of the project, it will be a bit higher than that, 92.2%. The stripping ratio for the life of the project is 2.51. In the first 7 years, the project, it will be a little bit higher at 2.77. Operating costs are estimated to be $18.40 per ton processed over the life of the project. The payback period using a $1,600 gold price is 47 months. I'll now turn the time over to John Rozelle to discuss some of the technical aspects of the study and the basis for the results. John?

Thank you, Fred. On the slide, we talk about the reserve because it's an integral component. And you might note that we've not changed the resource. And so reserve has been there for some time. And it just needed a little higher gold price and a change in the gold price of the pit. So no change to the mineral resource. As Fred mentioned, we had previously used a $1,000 gold pit. We're using $1,125 gold pit. So just a slight change there. We had a slight decrease in the grade from 0.4 to 0.35 because of the higher gold prices. And this still is well above the internal cutoff grade of 0.24 grams per tonne. And with sorting at 0.35 is actually very close to 0.4 when it sees the pit. We are going to see in a moment that we have an improved production profile. And through the first 7 years, Fred has already discussed the large post-production profile, increased life with multiple targets. Those are around the Batman deposit itself, an extension of the Batman deposit. There are still untapped resources within the Batman deposit that are in the inferred resource category that would need drilling to become reserves and are currently considered waste. The next slide gives the use profile production per year. And you'll be able to see that it's a strong profile. We do have a dip in the production in years, really 9, 10 and 11. This is due to a stripping phase that occurs at that point. And we believe that we have ample time to fill in that dip with exploration targets and other conversion of resources from the Batman pit. We have provided you with a Mt Todd site layout plan to see. The first thing I would note is that we have not changed the general layout. You'll see TSF1 -- and it should be TSF for a tailing storage facility, tailing storage facility 2. Their footprints are the same as they have been. We had capacity in tailing storage facility 2 to accommodate the additional reserves that are shown in this study. The pit is in the same location, obviously. We have extended the waste rock down slightly to the South. So it has grown a bit. But again, in the same area, the plant is in the exact same location as it has been. Next, we'll see the process flow sheet. The process flow sheet is unchanged. And so the process has been set for some time, and it's all main brand off-the-shelf equipment. It's all been quoted, as Fred talked about most recently in the fourth quarter of last year. The change for this study is that piping, electrical and instrumentation has been fully completed at the feasibility level. And then additionally, we have undertaken a geotechnical drilling program as part of the work and all of the exact foundation locations for the heavy equipment have been drilled the foundation locations, obviously, for the tailings facilities for the waste rock dump and for the raw water dam. So everything is based on hard firm data and first principal quotes from the ground up. The next slide talks about our third-party generation. We have, for some time, talked about the fact that reminders and that power generation was something we were looking at because of price. We have managed over the past couple of years in order to engage with some Australian power generating suppliers that supply to the mining industry, among others, and have entered into an agreement with one of them in order to build, own and operate the power generating plant and sell power to us over the fence at a fixed price. And so the rendering there is the conceptual power plant, ours would be slightly different. This is a large facility. It's a 104-megawatt power plant. But we are very pleased to be working with a very high-profile reputable power supplier in Australia that supplies power to many, many other mining operations. At this time, I'll turn it over to Doug Tobler.

Thanks, John. Moving on to our Slide #11. We've got a couple of charts that I'd like to drill down on the economic results of the project just for a few minutes. The first slide shows our gold sales versus our cash operating costs. And we showed this slide because it really demonstrates the project's economic performance potential using just the site-based costs. The blue bars, of course, are the revenue. The red bars are the internal operating costs. And by that, I mean our mining costs, our processing costs, our site G&A and our refining costs. So everything that would happen at the site itself. We've shown this chart at $1,600 gold. So if you look at the difference between the revenue bar and the operating cost bar, that's really the site-based operating margin. And that's a very important driver for how the project will perform. You can see, as John said, we've got 7 very good years right out of the chute. That's an exceptional opportunity and something that everybody should take interest in. If you calculate what that means in terms of the site operating margin, it's $2.8 billion over that 7-year period. Then as John said, we dip into a few years. What we're really doing is reinvesting in the project during those middle 3 years. And by that, we mean that we're basically opening up the pit efficiently so that we can continue to access sufficient ore in the last 1/3 of the mine life of the project. Then of course, as we move into that last 1/3, you again see very strong cash margins. It totals $1.8 billion during that last years 12 through 17. So very, very strong project. And I think with the opportunities that John mentioned, Fred will touch on them in a little bit more detail, I think you'll see those middle years fill out. And in all likelihood, that will also result in extending the mine life even beyond that start of the 17th year. Moving on to Slide #12. This slide is a very traditional looking slide. It's an after-tax cash flow slide. So this really brings together all of the cash flow components, taxes, royalties, everything over the life of the project. And again, we ran this with $1,600 gold. You can see the dip during the first 2 years, which is the construction period and then a steady progression of cash flows out through year 17, and that shows the cash flow of just right at $2 billion. Just for interest's sake, around the model the other day at the $1,800 gold price, and that $2 billion jumps to $2.8 billion. So that's a good indicator of the potential of how this project would look in today's current gold price environment. And just in closing out, if you'll flip on to Slide 13, we've really put this together so you can understand the sensitivity of the project to the gold price variances. On the left, we have the sensitivity to the net present value at a 5% discount rate. And the chart on the right is, of course, the internal rate of return. And the simplest way to put this is for every $100 increase in the gold price, you will see about a $230 million increase in the net present value of 5%, and you'll see about a 3% increase in the internal rate of return. So those show very good upside again as we move into what the current gold price environment is. With that, I'll flip it back over to Fred, let him move through the rest of it. Thank you.

Thank you, Doug and John. For those listening on the call, I apologize for the technical difficulties we had at the start of the presentation. The presentation Will be available on our website, and you can download it and view it in its entirety. In addition to the results of the feasibility study that were announced today, we believe that there are other opportunities for adding value at Mt Todd. Within the ultimate pit shape, there are, as one would expect, inferred resources that don't have sufficient drilling or density of drilling to be able to be stated as measured and indicated resources that are presently counted as waste as this material is either defined by additional drilling or is drilled as part of the blast hole drilling program. We believe that these inferred resources will convert to material that goes to the mill, which has the potential to extend the life of the project. The Batman deposit itself the core of the ore body demonstrates modest increases in grades with depth. And the deposit is presently open at depth. A significant increase in the gold price could justify further expansion of the pit at depth, which would again result in a longer life for the project. The Quigleys deposit, which is approximately 5 kilometers to the north of the Batman deposit, has a known mineral resource with higher estimated gold grades. Now additional drilling is required and as well as additional metallurgical testing in order to convert the Quigleys resource to reserves and to develop mine plants, but that's another opportunity. In fact, we believe that the Quigleys deposit could be an additional source of feed to the plant in the mid-life of the project, enhancing the economics during those middle years that Doug and John have both made reference to. The recently completed drilling demonstrates the opportunity for additions to the mineral resource inventory within the boundaries of the mining license. Our drilling in the last 1.5 years has demonstrated the continuity of mineralization between the Batman and Quigleys deposits, and has been focused on identifying areas where additional resources can be added efficiently in the future. Furthermore, Vista controls over 1,500 square kilometers of exploration licenses that are contiguous to the mining license and are -- and they, along with the project itself, lie at the southeast end of the Pine Creek Mining District. This is a historic mining district that's produced gold for over 100 years. We, to date, have identified various gold targets through early-stage grassroots exploration. However, there's very little drilling. We believe that these areas represent a strong opportunity for growth through exploration. So what are the differentiators? What makes Mt Todd different than many other projects that are similarly advanced? Well, I would suggest to all listening and watching this presentation subsequently that our people are one of the big differentiators. We have an outstanding team of people at the Mt Todd site who have been very diligent in our site management roles, in the environmental stewardship that we have demonstrated and in our relationships with the community, the Jawoyn aboriginal people and other stakeholders. We're very proud of our team and look forward to the contributions that they will make in the future. Additionally, Mt Todd is located in the Tier 1 mining jurisdiction of the Northern Territory of Australia, province or a territory with a well-established mining history and mining industry that is very strongly supported by the territory government. Mt Todd is different than many of our peers in that the climate and geography are well suited to productive year-round operations with an elevation of roughly 100 meters above sea level, located in the northern part of the continent with no freezing temperatures. We don't face many of the challenges that our peers face with seasonal operations or having to deal with harsh winter climates and/or perhaps the effects of high elevation mines. All of the permits for the Mt Todd project have been -- all of the major permits have been approved. Today, we stand at a point where we could commence construction immediately if that were our desire. The environmental impact statement granted by the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Agency was granted in 2014. Subsequently, we are required to obtain a federal environmental authorization under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act that was approved in January of 2018. The mining management plan, equivalent to a mine operating permit, was granted by the Northern Territory Department of Industry Tourism and Trade in June of last year. Other mining permits have also been granted since that date, including our water extraction license, which gives us the right to use the water in the fresh water storage reservoir. The waterway diversion authorizations that will be needed for the construction as well as aboriginal areas, protection authority certificates for not only the mining license but also the exploration licenses. We enjoy great relationships with the traditional owners, the Jawoyn and their leaders are long-time friends and supporters of the project. We worked very closely with them. Over half of our employees are aboriginal. We have been very sensitive to the needs of the Jawoyn people, specifically a high priority for us is the protection of sacred sites in culturally significant areas as identified by the Jawoyn people. We are working with them presently to define training opportunities and to define employment opportunities that will be made available as the project advances. As I'll show you in a moment, the all-in sustaining cost for years 1 through 7 are estimated to be well below the median all-in sustaining cost for junior and mid-tier producers. Last of all, we hit on this briefly, but Mt Todd enjoys significant infrastructure, paved roads to the site, power line, natural gas pipeline, which will feed the third-party power plant, which John Rozelle discussed, the tailings storage facility, which has capacity for over 1/4 of the initial -- of the reserves of the project. And a freshwater storage reservoir, which with a 2-meter radius will provide 2-year storage capacity for all of our water needs. These things, these bits of existing infrastructure significantly reduce our project development risk and shorten the project development timeline and give us a distinct advantage over many of our peers. We believe that these are significant factors not to mention the economics and the robustness of the project. So as I mentioned, our all-in sustaining costs are expected to be lower than our junior and intermediate producer peers. You see in this chart, the upper chart shows that the median all-in sustaining cost for junior producers is $1,075 per ounce, and business cost will be -- the Mt Todd costs are estimated to be $860 over the first 7 years. Compared to intermediate producer peers, the median is $1,038. Again, our costs are a little below that. We believe that this positions Mt Todd as a project that will be very attractive to a potential partner. Before we take time for questions and answers, I'd like to close with the slide of why you should consider investing in Vista Gold. This is undervalued, but with a clear path to value realization, the feasibility study delivered on time and on budget and delivered a very significant increase in the project reserves. The economics are very compelling over the life of the 16-year project. And as Doug pointed out, there is a period where our margins become a little thin. But we believe that with 7 to 8 years of operations to develop additional resources and reserves, potentially higher grades such as coming from Quigleys, that we'll be able to offset that as the project moves forward. The feasibility study demonstrates resilience to current inflationary trends. Not all of our peers can make that statement. We're very satisfied that the Northern Territory is a safe and friendly mining jurisdiction. We've already worked with territory and national leaders and agencies to gain all of the major permits for the project. The project is very accessible, located 250 kilometers southeast of Darwin and 10 kilometers east of the Stuart Highway. Mt Todd is one of the most easily accessible major projects in the country. We believe that there's valuable optionality for this development-ready project. We think that the large scale with high operating margins and with its size, putting it in a position to be one of the largest gold producers in Australia, make it very attractive to a potential partner. We have a very successful ESG track record. We're recognized as a leader in environmental stewardship in the Northern Territory as a result of our success in managing water on the site. We enjoy strong support from the Jawoyn. We believe that our social license is firmly in place. I hope that this presentation and discussion today has helped you understand and appreciate the significance of the results that were announced this morning as we announced the results of the feasibility study. We are now focused on realizing the intrinsic value of the Mt Todd project and value creation for our shareholders. This, with the completion of the feasibility study, becomes job #1. I'm confident that in the coming weeks and months that there will be announcements that will help the market and investors understand what we're doing to create value and to realize the value of the project. I'll conclude with just this picture that demonstrates and shows the success of our dewatering efforts at Mt Todd. That's approximately 14 to 16 days of pumping with the installed pumping capacity. The mine, as it exists today, is ready for mining operations to commence whenever we make that decision. Sade, we'll now open the call for questions, and I'll either answer those or I'll solicit the help of John and Doug in responding.

[Operator Instructions] For our first question, we have Heiko Ihle from H.C. Wainwright.

Stock is up 15%. So congratulations on that.

Heiko, it's great to hear from you.

The sensitivity to the price of gold. I mean, I sort of hinted at this in the last call that we had, it's even more prevalent now. I mean, your cash costs are still quite low. In the meantime, gold prices aren't that far off from historical highs. You talked about some inflationary things in [indiscernible] Want you to just sort of walk us through maybe impacts of even higher gold prices and the longer-term potential there.

Yes, certainly. As indicated, we have used a $1,600 gold price as the base for the study. We believe that's a little conservative. We know that there are others out there who have used higher gold prices. The economics and the sensitivity evaluation indicates that for every $100 change in the gold price, there's an approximate $230 million change in the NPV of the project. At the same time, for every $100 change in gold prices, there's an approximate 3% change in IRR of the project. We're at a very interesting time with inflation and other factors that could affect the gold price. You can -- anyone can do the extrapolation from the data and come up with what they think the economics might be at significantly higher gold prices. But I think the bottom line, Heiko, is that Mt Todd, leverage to the gold price has increased with the completion of the feasibility study compared to the PFS 3 years ago.

Clear. Okay. And then another quickie here. The recovery rate is expected to go from 92.2% in the first 7 years to 91.6% thereafter. Maybe just give a bit of color on the lower recovery rate. I mean, is it solely based on lower fee to the mill? Or is there the any different rocks that are getting processed? And, I mean, between now and 7 years from when you start, or 7 years after you start, rather, I assume there's going to be all sorts of technological changes and whatnot. Do you think there may actually be a way to improve this a little bit?

Well, certainly. To respond to your last question first. The challenge of the operating team once the project is built will be to optimize the gold recovery. I think it's important for everyone to understand that the key to the improved gold recovery compared to previous studies was a change in the grind size. And the finer grind size allows us to achieve better gold recovery. With experience and as the project is built and operates and gains experience, the operating team may be able to marginally decrease the grind size. Given the redundancy in some of the capacity that's been designed into the project, that will inherently result in increases in gold recovery. The other important factor though that's reflected in the numbers that we've discussed as we talked about the project is that like many mining operations that are milling operations, we see a nearly constant tail. It varies slightly depending on the head grade, the grade of the feed. And so as we process higher grade material, we achieve a slightly higher recovery. As we process lower grade material, the tail is nearly constant and so we see a slight decrease in the recovery. And that's the driving factor in the estimates right now. However, as I indicated, I see this as a tremendous opportunity for the operating team once the project is built to dial in the operation of the plant. And part of that will include grind size, and that will be a key contributor to the overall recovery number.

Got it. And then I assume this is going to be almost a yes or no clarification. But quote from your release, the recently [indiscernible] management plan will be amended to align with the design changes in DFS. That's purely a formality, right? This is like fill all a couple of forms and pay like a small nominal fee and then it's essentially automatic, right?

Well, I'm not quite sure it's quite that easy, Heiko. But the design changes, for example, with the larger reserve, the increased size of the waste rock dump, the increased size of the tailings storage facility. We've already had the initial discussions with the government agencies, and there's -- the design principles, which the original mine management or the existing mine management plan is based are sound. There will be no changes to those engineering principles. There will be more than anything changes in the ultimate footprints of those facilities, and we don't anticipate any undue delays or impediments to gaining the approval of the amendments. As things stand right now, the mine management plan that has been approved will allow us to commence construction at any time. It will -- the amendments that will be requested do not affect the development timeline of the project.

For our next question, we have Adrian Day from Adrian Asset Management.

I have a few questions. But maybe if I can ask 1 and then jump back in the queue if there's other people. And that's looking ahead. You have repeatedly -- recently, you've repeatedly used the phrase, partnership. And so I'm wondering what kind of parameters if you've had time to -- what kind of parameters you would be looking at for a partnership deal that you would call satisfactory?

Well, Adrian, I think that as the language in the announcement this morning indicates that we're going to be evaluating a broad range of alternatives, and a partner is certainly one of those. With the economics of the project, as reported, we believe that this would be a very attractive partner for a senior producer or an upper mid-tier gold producer. Now with a senior producer, we recognize that they will insist on being the majority partner. Parameters that would be acceptable to us, we obviously would like to retain an ownership position that would be as close to 50% as possible. We recognize that in reality that may be that the partnership if that's ultimately the transaction that we're able to negotiate with likely be a 60-40, or maybe a 65-35 partnership. The key parameters, the key factors for us will be the cash that's paid or the cash commitments that are made to pay for Vista's capital cost contributions. The quantum of those payments will be a very important consideration in the discussions about what the ownership percentage is. We also are looking for a partner who is motivated. We believe that the engineering that's been completed positions Mt Todd to be advanced to the point that -- from the point that a partnership is formed that first gold could be poured within 3 years. And we want to see a partner who is equally committed to advancing the project as we are. Obviously, a partner must share our standards, our views with regards to environmental stewardship and social responsibility and good governance. We've worked hard to earn a social license and to maintain a social license in the territory. And we want to see that continued by the partner. We hope that they will bring credibility. Obviously, another consideration is that our first choice in talking about producers is that they would bring the development experience and credibility through the project to be able to advance the project and move it forward quickly.

Okay. Okay. And one other question on Midas -- sorry, go on.

Well, no. I was going to say go ahead and ask your other questions. There's space in the queue.

Okay. Okay. Well, I was trying to say, I know Australia has had very strict lockdowns recently and just begun to open up. Are you able to tell us when the last time you were able to take a third party to actually visit the site was? And then going forward, now that Australia is opening up, can you talk a little bit about when you expect to be taking people on site?

Yes, certainly. The last visitors that we had on site -- and I have to -- I'm going to put a caveat on the response, Adrian. None of us from the Denver office have been able to travel to Australia for 2 years. However, we have a very competent team on site, and we have hosted site visits to organizations that have Australian representation as late as August and September of last year. So we've had recent site visits in that regard. There is ongoing due diligence on the part of at least 1 interested party at the present time. With the announcement that was made this week, the Australian government has indicated that they are removing the international travel restrictions effective February 21, in which we will then be able to travel with the caveat that we'll have to demonstrate vaccination and a negative COVID test within 72 hours of departure. With that, we will be able to host site visits by interested parties from both within and without Australia anytime starting the latter part of this month. And we're very excited about that. This is the timing of the Australian government's announcement couldn't have come at a better time for us and our efforts to advance the project.

Yes, when I saw that, I thought you'd maybe been talking to them and trusting [indiscernible] was very fortuitous. Listen, I have 2 more quick questions, if I may. And Matt is on Saudi. And I'll just ask both and then get off the line. One is, are you able to tell us what drilling was included in this study but was not in the October 2019 study? And then secondly, if you had it, I missed it, I'm sorry, because of a slide issue. What is the sensitivity to the Australian dollar? I'm more interested in -- myself, I'm more interested in the ongoing costs rather than the CapEx. But the Australian dollar, of course, is already up over 1% since the [$0.71] So I'm wondering what it's going to be is.

I'm going to let John Rozelle respond to the drilling question.

Sure, Adrian. There are no differences in the drilling. We -- all the drilling that has happened since the 2019 study has been out looking at exploration potential and upside near the mine site. So none of that drilling is included as far as additional resources. So as I said, all of this came from the existing Batman mineral resource that was reported and remains the same as reported previously. It's all growth through principally changing the pit shell from $1,000 to $1,125 and the cutoff grade from 0.4 gram Au per tonne to 0.35.

So Adrian, the second response to the second question. In the press release this morning, we have a more fulsome sensitivity table that includes some analysis of economics at $0.03 foreign exchange rate above and below the $0.71 that we report all of our economics at. The impact of foreign exchange rate on the project is important. It has -- for every $0.01 change in the foreign exchange rate, it equates to roughly a $10 million change in -- I'm sorry, a $30 million change in NPV of the project. So those things -- that moves the dial significantly, especially in combination with gold price to date, as we believe that foreign exchange rates over the course of the year, the foreign exchange rate has been pretty stable. And we're hopeful that, that will remain in check relative to the U.S. dollar. Our economies are behaving much in much the same way. But it's one of those factors that we watch closely on a daily basis amongst the team here. Are there any other question?

We don't have any other questions at this time. [Operator Instructions] Great, and since we don't have any questions at this time. Please continue for your closing remarks.

All right. Very good. Again, I would like to thank all of you who have joined the call this afternoon for taking time to learn more about the Mt Todd gold project and the tremendous results that this milestone represent. I would reiterate that our attention with the completion of the feasibility study, we'll now focus most intensely on increasing shareholder value and the realization of the intrinsic value of Mt Todd. We believe that Mt Todd's location, its size, scale, the economics, the permitting status and the extensive technical work represent a unique near-term development opportunity that will allow us to evaluate a broad range of development partner structures and alternatives as we continue to focus on maximizing shareholder value. Again, I would indicate that the feasibility study presentation in its entirety will be on our website a little bit later today. We apologize for the technical difficulties encountered at the start of this call. We thank you for your interest and invite you to look more closely. And we invite you to seriously consider an investment in Vista Gold. I believe that we are better positioned to create value for our shareholders than perhaps any other developer at this point in time. With that, I conclude our remarks. And we thank you for your time and your interest this afternoon.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.