Vista prices stock offering at $2.50 per share

Vista Gold prices public stock offering at $2.50 per share, boosts number of shares to be sold

• On 1:11 pm EDT, Wednesday September 16, 2009

DENVER (AP) -- Mining company Vista Gold Corp. has priced its public offering of common stock at $2.25 per share and increased the number of shares to be sold by 10 percent to 8.8 million.

In an announcement late Tuesday, Vista also granted the offering's underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to 1.32 million additional shares to cover possible overallotments.

The net proceeds of the offering, which is scheduled to close on Monday, are expected to total $17.6 million.

The offering price represents a 6.2 percent discount from Vista's close of $2.40 on Tuesday. Its shares fell 6 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $2.34 in midday trading Wednesday.

Vista Gold said it plans to use the proceeds to fund drilling and exploration on its Mt. Todd project, its Paredones Amarillos project and work on its Guadalupe de los Reyes project. It will also use the money to fund acquisitions and development of mineral properties, for working capital and general corporate expenses.

Dahlman Rose & Co. and Wellington West Capital Markets Inc. are joint underwriters for the offering.

The company currently has about 34.5 million shares outstanding.