VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Mar 31, 2010– Minefinders Corporation Ltd. (“Minefinders”) is pleased to report recent drill results from core drilling at their La Bolsa Property in Sonora, Mexico.
The drill results are positive and will be incorporated into the existing resource for La Bolsa. This updated resource will be used for the construction of the reserve block model used in the pre-feasibility study being conducted with regard to the economic viability of an open pit heap leach mine. Inclusion of these recent drill results is expected to increase the La Bolsa resource and reduce the prospective operating strip ratio compared with what we had been anticipating.
“We expect these drilling results to have a positive effect on the pre-feasibility work currently underway,” commented Mark Bailey, President and Chief Executive Officer. “La Bolsa is advancing as we had hoped and we plan to complete feasibility work as promptly as possible. The pre-feasibility study is expected to be in hand during the second quarter of 2010.”
Both wide intercepts of low-grade gold and silver and shorter intercepts of high-grade gold and silver were encountered as indicated in Table I. Significant intercepts include 12.5 metres (41.0 ft) containing 2.375 grams per tonne (gpt) gold (Au) with 57.3 gpt silver (Ag), to intermediate widths of 28.4 metres (93.2 ft) containing 1.354 gpt Au with 17.4 gpt Ag, to wide low-grade intervals of 48.2 metres (158.1 ft) containing 0.532 gpt Au with 5.3 gpt Ag. Individual high-grade intercepts of up to 10.765 gpt Au over 1 meter and up to 202.9 gpt Ag over 1.5 metres were also encountered. All drill holes are core holes and intercept lengths represent assayed values from half-splits of HQ (63.5 mm diameter) core taken from along the length of the hole. Intercept lengths and depth to intercepts may not represent true distance or thickness as some drill holes are not perpendicular to mineralization.
As previously reported, the gold-silver mineralization occurs within a shallowly dipping continuously mineralized oxidized blanket that is sub parallel to topography and approximately 900 metres (3,000 feet) in length and 365 metres (1,200 feet) in width with thicknesses that range from 10 to 50 metres (30 to 165 feet). The recent drill holes as reported below are definition drill holes from within the east-half or down-dip portion of the resource area.
