Minefinders cuts high grades at Dolores

Vancouver — Minefinders (MFL-T) has cut high-grade gold and silver at its wholly owned Dolores property in northern Chihuahua state, Mexico.

A 30,000-metre drilling program is enabling the company to upgrade its inferred resource to the measured and indicated categories in preparation for a bankable feasibility study.

To date, Minefinders has completed 59 core holes totalling 18,200 metres, as well as 32 reverse-circulation (RC) holes totalling 6,100 metres. Most of this work has been infilling the Main zone; only six holes have been stepouts (three on the previously untested south and west flank of the central dome, and three on the core shed anomaly). Results are still pending for four of these holes.

Most of the Main zone has now been drilled off at 25-metre centres, though some additional infill and deeper drilling in the area is still required.

Dolores is a multi-million-ounce deposit. Based on a cutoff grade of 0.6 gram gold-equivalent, Dolores contains almost 2.4 million oz. gold and 138 million oz. silver in a total resource of 65.4 million tonnes grading 1.13 grams gold and 65.7 grams silver.

The measured and indicated portion alone stands at 43 million tonnes grading 1.16 grams gold and 67.9 grams silver, equivalent to 1.6 million oz. gold and 93.8 million oz. silver. The inferred category contains 22.5 million tonnes grading 1.07 grams gold and 61.6 grams silver, or 772,000 oz. gold and 44.5 million oz. silver.

Diamond drill hole 158 cut multiple zones of mineralization and was collared on section 2700, about 75 metres south hole 155, which cut 134 metres averaging 1.32 grams gold and 24 grams silver per tonne. The angled hole was mineralized over 309 metres, from 108 to 417 metres down-hole, across a true width exceeding 200 metres. This zone contained the highest silver grades encountered to date on the property.

Hole 158 returned 42.4 metres averaging 1.26 grams gold and 710.7 grams silver per tonne, including a 4.6-metre interval of 5.5 grams gold and 6,135.1 grams silver (178.94 oz. per ton), and 2 metres of 8.71 grams gold and 13,410 grams silver (391.13 oz. per ton). A second interval, farther down-hole, cut 58 metres averaging 1.7 grams gold and 16.2 grams silver and included a 19-metre section of 3.42 grams gold and 35.6 grams silver.

An RC hole, no. R180, collared on section 2800 at the south end of the Main zone, cut 9.14 metres of 2.3 grams gold and 139.5 grams silver, including 3.05 metres grading 6.12 grams gold and 147.5 grams silver. Farther down-hole, it intersected 10.67 metres averaging 0.99 gram gold and 158.6 grams silver, including 4.57 metres of 1.9 grams gold and 293.7 grams silver.

Minefinders says this area of the property, around the southern end of the Main zone, has seen only limited drilling. No holes were previously drilled on section 2800.

Hole 161 also cut multiple zones of mineralization, including: 9.5 metres of 0.22 gram gold and 119.2 grams silver; 6 metres of 0.798 gram gold and 107.7 grams silver; and 22 metres of 2.07 grams gold and 93.1 grams silver.

Results are still pending for an additional 4,039 metres of core and 138 metres of RC cuttings, and an additional 3,264 metres of core from holes completed prior to the holiday break still have to be logged and split before being transported to the lab for analysis.

New targets

Drilling will resume in mid-January 2003. The next phase of drilling will step out to test new targets on the property.

Metallurgical samples have been shipped to several labs, and several tests are planned, including pulp-agglomeration column-leach, semi-autogenous grinding, and agitated-leach. These tests are designed to evaluate possible alternatives to heap leaching.

A bypass road around the Dolores deposit has been permitted, and construction has begun. The road will consist of 6 km of bypass that will provide an unimpeded access route around the planned mine site.

The Dolores project is set in the rugged terrain of the Sierra Madre Occidental range, in the west-central part of the state, 250 km west of the city of Chihuahua. The property can be reached by a 4-hour drive along 90 km of logging roads from the town of Madera (pop. 35,000). A small local landing strip is close by.

The deposit is a low-sulphide, epithermal, quartz-adularia-sericite system structurally controlled by northwest-striking, high-angle shear zones. The mineralized trend occurs in a series of volcanic rocks dominated by andesite flows, flow breccias and tuffs conformably overlain by felsic volcaniclastics and intercalated latitic flow rocks.

At last report, Minefinders had 24 million shares outstanding, or 29.9 million on a fully diluted basis. Echo Bay Mines (ECO-T) owns a 15.1% stake in the company’s outstanding shares.