Pre-production capital costs to develop the Paredones Amarillos project are estimated at $196.7 million. Life-of-mine cash operating costs are estimated at $419/oz of gold produced ($388/oz during the first five years of operation). Operating costs are based on diesel prices effective as of May 2008 and energy prices effective as of the first quarter 2008.

The proposed Paredones Amarillos pit would have two distinct lobes. The highergrade west lobe would be mined first, and a significant portion of the waste rock from the east lobe would be used to backfill the west lobe. Concurrent reclamation of two waste dumps would be completed during the latter years of the operation.

A fleet of loaders and 91-mt-capacity trucks has been ordered, with first deliveries expected in June 2009. Vista will be the owner and operator of the fleet and has entered into preliminary agreements for a maintenance and repair contract for the major mining equipment.

The ore will be processed through a conventional crushing and grinding circuit, consisting of a primary gyratory crusher, a semi-autogenous grinding mill, and two ball mills, with an expected mill ore throughput rate of 11,000 mt/day. Following grinding, the slurried ore will be sized by cyclones and then leached in tanks prior to gold recovery using a Kemix carbon-in-pulp circuit. Gold will be stripped from the carbon and precipitated in an electrowinning cell prior to refining into doré bars.

Vista has purchased used crushing and grinding equipment from the Colomac mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories for use at Paredones Amarillos, and as of early September the equipment was in Edmonton, Canada, waiting shipment to Arizona for repairs and reconditioning.

Due to a scarcity of surface water and political sensitivities regarding the use of groundwater, Vista has elected to construct and operate a desalination plant on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur. Water would be pumped approximately 45 km to the site. Annual water consumption is estimated to be 1.4 million m3. The company expects that energy for the project will be supplied by the Comisión Federal de Electricidad from an existing sub-station located approximately 18 km north of the project.

Vista expects to complete financing arrangements for the Paredones Amarillos project by year-end 2008, with the objective of beginning construction before the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Participants in the Paredones Amarillos feasibility study included Mine Development Associates (resource/reserve estimates, mine planning, and mining capital and operating cost estimates), KD Engineering (process engineering, infrastructure design, and process capital and operating cost estimates), Resource Development, Inc. (metallurgical testing and review), Golder Associates (waste rock characterization and tailings impoundment facility design and construction cost estimates), Corporación Ambiental de México (environmental and socio-economic baseline), Veolia Water Systems Mexico (desalination plant design and capital and operating costs), and SRK (pit slope stability evaluation, closure plan and cost estimates, and economic analysis).