Vista Gold Corp., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a development-stage company in the gold mining industry in Australia. The company's flagship asset is the 100% owned Mt Todd gold project located in the Northern Territory, Australia. Vista Gold Corp. was incorporated in 1983 and is based in Englewood, Colorado.
Full VGZ analysis →
Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Strong Liquidity BufferLiquidity position is strong (score 0.85), providing operational cushion.
Key risks
ROIC Below WACC or PeersROIC at 2.1th percentile suggests inefficient capital deployment.
Vista Gold Corp ranks #45 of 49
scored companies in Gold by moat score — the top 92%.
The widest moat in the group is Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (AEM)
at 78/100.
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Not measurable
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Not measurable
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 7
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 41
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Not measurable
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Vista Gold Corp (VGZ) scores 20 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as weak. It ranks #45 of 49 scored companies in Gold, the top 92%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 48 companies in Gold. Its strongest defense is Resilience (41/100) and its weakest is Capital Efficiency (7/100).
How does Vista Gold Corp compare with other Gold companies?
Vista Gold Corp ranks #45 of 49 scored companies in Gold by moat score. The widest moat in Gold is Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (AEM) at 78/100. The companies ranked closest are Gold Resource Corporation (GORO) at 22 just above it and Contango ORE, Inc. (CTGO) at 19 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 48 companies in Gold. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Vista Gold Corp scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Vista Gold Corp?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and VGZ scores: Pricing Power (not measurable), Cost Advantage (not measurable), Customer Stickiness (not measurable), Capital Efficiency (7), Resilience (41), Scale & Market Position (not measurable). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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