Artemis Gold has agreed to buy Vista Gold in a stock-only deal valued at about US$427 million, giving Vista shareholders 0.0966 Artemis shares for each Vista share.
The offer implies US$2.83 per Vista share, a 29% premium to Vista’s 20-day volume-weighted average price through Sept. 18 and a 25% premium to its last closing price. Artemis already owns 4.95% of Vista and said it intends to cancel that stake at closing.
Under the proposed ownership split, Artemis shareholders would own about 95% of the combined company and Vista shareholders about 5%, excluding Artemis’s existing Vista holding. No cash is changing hands and no new debt is being taken on.
The target asset is Vista’s Mt Todd gold project in Australia, which the company says holds 9.1 million ounces of measured and indicated resources and 1.4 million ounces of inferred resources. The project has permits for a 50,000-tonne-per-day processing facility.
Artemis said Blackwater Phase 1a and the EP2 expansion remain its top priorities. It expects Blackwater EP2 to be completed by mid-2028 and said Mt Todd development spending would not be needed before then.
After EP2, Artemis said Blackwater is expected to produce more than 500,000 ounces of gold a year. The company said the combined Blackwater and Mt Todd platform creates a path to more than 1 million ounces of annual gold production.
Vista reported US$50 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt as of June 30, 2026. The company’s market capitalization was US$341 million.
The deal carries a US$18 million termination fee under certain circumstances, and is expected to close in January 2027, following shareholder and regulatory approvals. Today the company's shares have moved 0.91% to a price of $2.765. Check out the company's full 8-K submission here.
