Placer joins Minefinders in Mexico

Placer Dome (PDG-T) has agreed to earn up to a 70% interest in Minefinders‘s (MFL-T) 35-sq.-km El Malacate project, part of its larger Northern Sonora property in Mexico.

Under the agreement, Placer can earn a 51% interest in the property by paying US$ar500,000 in cash and funding US$4.5 million on exploration over four years. The major can then up its stake by 9% by completing a bankable feasibility study by the agreement’s sixth anniversary. Placer can boost its interest another 10% to 70% by making a positive a production decision and commencing construction of a commercial mine on the property.

Minefinders will act as operator for the first year; after that Placer can, at its discretion, takeover as operator.

The deal is subject to an ongoing 30-day due diligence period.

Minefinders has identified seven drill-ready gold targets within, and around, the Malacate caldera system. The targets are defined by anomalous-to-ore-grade gold mineralization associated with volcanic calderas.El Ruidito, Ahumada North and West Bordo Blanco areas exhibit the strongest anomalies. Values at El Ruidito run between 1 and 9.3 grams gold per tonne. The values are derived from a high-grade, gold-bearing calcite-quartz vein up to 15 metres wide and outcropping for more than 600 metres along strike.

Rock chip samples from stockwork-veined and altered conglomerates, felsic dykes and andesitic volcanic flows along the northern portion of the Ahumada prospect returned between 0.5 and 7.7 grams gold. The target stretches for more than 2 km at widths up to 600 metres. The prospect’s southern portion has also returned encouraging values.

The 2-km-long West Bordo Blanco prospect returned between 0.5 and 5 grams gold from an altered and stockwork-veined conglomerate.

Minefinders believes the that along with the outcrops, the presence of hot-spring sinters may mark the upper levels of several mineralizing systems, which could yield higher grades at depth.

Permitting for an initial 2,000-metre drill program is underway.

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