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Gold/Mining/Energy : Minefinders, MFL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Terry Maloney who wrote (245)	10/25/2000 9:33:19 AM
From: I_C_Deadpeople	Respond to of 578

Minefinders receives metallurgical test results Minefinders Corporation Ltd MFL Shares issued 16,300,709 Oct 24 close $1.10 Wed 25 Oct 2000 News Release Mr. Mark Bailey reports Minefinders Corporation has received final results from pulp agglomeration column leach testing completed by McClelland Laboratories of Sparks, Nev. These results, combined with the updated resource calculation (as reported in Stockwatch Sept. 18, 2000), will be used to provide the basis for additional economic analysis of the Dolores Main zone deposit. The final metallurgical report prepared by McClelland Laboratories emphasizes that Dolores ores are amenable to pulp agglomeration heap leach treatment. Overall projected recoveries will average 86 per cent to 89 per cent for gold and 57 per cent to 65 per cent for silver. Of particular importance is that gold recoveries of over 95 per cent and silver recoveries of over 80 per cent can be achieved from the high-grade pulps in a commercial pulp agglomeration heap leach processing cycle. The proposed pulp-agglomeration heap leach processing methodology will process the higher-grade ore through a mill-grinding circuit (approximately 35 per cent of the open-pit minable tonnes) then agglomerate the residual pulp with lower-grade ore (approximately 65 per cent of open-pit minable tonnes) and process by standard heap leach technology. The resource estimation block model shows that between 65 per cent and 70 per cent of the total contained gold and silver metal within the Dolores deposit will be recovered from the high-grade ore at the greater than 95 per cent for gold and greater than 80 per cent for silver recovery rates. This number substantially exceeds recovery rates previously predicted for the high-grade pulped material and in turn should reflect positively in the overall economics of the operation. Open-pit mine modelling will use the 0.5 of a gram per tonne and 0.6 g/t Au equivalent cut-off grades with an anticipated mill cut-off grade of between 1.5 g/t and two g/t Au equivalent, depending on modelling parameters. At either of these mine cut-off grades the Dolores deposit contains more than two million ounces of gold and 110 million ounces of silver, and the potential to more than double in size with additional exploration drilling. McClelland reports that recovery from high-grade pulp is relatively independent of grind size. The grind sizes used in the column leach tests were a relatively coarse P80-212 micrometres (80 per cent passing -65 mesh) and a finer P80-106 micrometres (80 per cent passing -150 mesh) grind size that effectively leached at the same rate for two out of three of the tested zones. Only material sampled from the North zone showed significantly enhanced recovery from the finer grind size. In the test columns, low-grade ores crushed at 3/8-inch (80 per cent passing -9.5 millimetres) were combined with the residual high-grade pulp at a relatively high 75:25 low-grade to high-grade ore ratio. Because there were no percolation, fines migration, or solution channeling problems encountered during percolation leaching of the 75 per cent L.G.: 25 per cent H.G. pulp ore mixtures, the projected commercial heap leach low-grade to high-grade ratio can be increased resulting in additional recovery efficiency. Actual projected recoveries assuming a 65:35 low-grade to high-grade ratio and leach times typical of commercial pulp agglomeration heap leach processing were calculated by McClelland Labs from the data obtained from the six completed pulp agglomeration column leach tests. Using the coarser grind size (P80-212 micrometres), overall projected gold recoveries are 91 per cent, 91 per cent, and 75 per cent gold for the South, Central, and North zones. At the finer grind size of (P80 -106 micrometres) projected gold recovery increased to 86 per cent for the North zone. Overall projected silver recoveries at the coarser grind size were 58 per cent, 61 per cent and 76 per cent for the South, Central, and North zones. Additional testing to optimize recoveries of the high-grade pulped material, and to confirm the efficacy of leaching at the 65:35 low-grade to high-grade ratio, are recommended. The company is proceeding with computer design of a new open-pit mine plan incorporating results of the updated resource model, which includes data from the 5,800 metres of drilling completed this year and the revised metallurgical recoveries. Overall project economics should reflect the impact of the higher grades in the updated resource model as well as the improved metallurgical recoveries. The Dolores deposit remains open in all directions with excellent potential to more than double the current gold and silver resource. The deposit has continued to increase in size and grade with the completion of each drilling program, now totalling more than 61,000 metres in 230 drill holes, and it is expected to continue to increase in size and grade as the deposit is brought to final feasibility. WARNING: The company relies upon litigation protection for "forward-looking" statements.