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

To: russwinter who wrote (250)	11/20/2000 11:23:16 AM
From: I_C_Deadpeople	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 578

Minefinders receives Dolores economic analysis Minefinders Corporation Ltd MFL Shares issued 16,300,709 Nov 16 close $1.05 Mon 20 Nov 2000 News Release Mr. Mark Bailey reports Minefinders has received preliminary economic analysis from new pit designs for the updated Dolores resource model reported in September. Results indicate that the Dolores Main zone deposit has robust economics with anticipated cash costs of $141 to $149 per ounce Au equivalent and yearly average production levels of 242,900 ounces Au equivalent that rivals those of other large-scale precious metals mines worldwide. Two pits, one at highly discounted gold and silver prices, and one nearer to anticipated production prices, have been generated, and then modelled at two different gold and silver price levels. The table below summarizes preliminary cash flow analysis for two pit shells at different price sensitivities for gold and silver: At $200/oz Au At $300/oz Au Pit-shell and $4/oz Ag and $5/oz Ag Tonnes of ore 59.7 million 67.2 million Gold grade g/t 0.944 g/t 0.961 g/t Silver grade g/t 55.04 g/t 53.63 g/t Aueq grade of ore g/t 1.86 g/t Aueq 1.85 g/t Aueq Strip ratio 3.7:1 4.2:1 Tonnes of agglomerate ore 20.7 million 23.4 million Gold grade 2.09 g/t 2.09 g/t Silver grade 129.9 g/t 124.5 g/t Aueq grade of agglomerate 4.26 g/t Aueq 4.17 g/t Aueq Contained gold 1.81 million 2.08 million oz oz Contained silver 105.6 million 115.8 million oz oz Gold recovered 1.6 million 1.8 million oz oz Silver recovered 74.7 million 81.6 million oz oz Total Aueq recovered 2.8 million 3.2 million oz oz Capital cost +15% $77 million $77 million Cash cost/ oz Aueq $141.9/oz Aueq $149.3/oz Aueq Total cost/ oz Aueq $180.3/oz Aueq $183.6/oz Gold and $275/oz and $275/oz and silver $4.75/oz $4.75/oz price $325/oz and $325/oz and $5.50/oz $5.50/oz NPV at 0% discount $248.5 million/ $267.2 million/ $378.1 million $412.3 million Calculated IRR 22.0%/31.4% 22.6%/32.7% * all dollar values are U.S.$ * all Aueq is reported at a 60:1 value ratio for silver:gold. The open-pit minable portion of the Dolores Main zone deposit has substantially increased to 67.2 million tonnes containing 2.07 million ounces of gold and 115.8 million ounces of silver. This corresponds to a 43-per-cent increase in tonnage, an 80-per-cent increase in recovered gold and a 76-per-cent increase in recovered silver. Cash cost per ounce estimates are significantly lower at $141 to $149 per ounce Au equivalent than those reported in the 1998 scoping study ($169 to $177 per ounce Au equivalent). A mine life of 13 years results in production of 138,359 ounces of gold and 6.27 million ounces of silver or approximately 242,900 ounces of gold equivalent metal annually for the life of the open-pit mine. The new pit shells were generated by the company with the assistance of Gemcom, using Whittle 3-D software for open-pit mine design. Pit shells were developed using gold prices ranging from $200 to $300 and silver prices of $4 to $5 per ounce. Pit wall angles of 50 degrees were set according to preliminary work conducted by Golder Associates in 1998. All start-up and sustaining capital costs, mining costs, general and administrative, and processing costs for agglomerated and leach ore are consistent with the 1998 scoping study costs. Metallurgical recovery rates for pulp-agglomerated and leach ore were taken from the latest pulp-agglomeration column leach data generated by McClelland Labs as reported in Stockwatch Oct. 25, 2000. The base of the 3-D computer model was arbitrarily set at an elevation of 1,250 metres and resource calculations and therefore pit shells did not extend below this level. More than 80 per cent of the Main zone deposit in the planned open-pit mine area, is now classified as measured and indicated. Extending known high-grade mineralization (at a five-gram-per-tonne Au equivalent cutoff) for an additional 200 metres in depth below the pit bottom could add substantial ounces of gold and silver to the Main zone deposit. This potential ore and that already identified in the East Dike, La Bohemia, Sur zone and Norte zone will add significantly to the ultimate size of the gold-silver deposit on the Dolores property. Management believes that the updated model fairly represents the distribution and grade of mineralization, corresponding to drill results from more than 230 holes totalling 61,000 metres, historical mining and the detailed geology of the deposit. Additional infill drilling and engineering work will be required to bring the open-pit minable resource to a final feasibility. Step-out drilling to test the high-grade mineralization beneath the pit and satellite mineralization along strike and adjacent to the Main zone deposit is expected to significantly increase the overall Dolores gold and silver resource as the project goes forward. WARNING: The company relies upon litigation protection for "forward-looking" statements. (c) Copyright 2000 Canjex Publishing Ltd. stockwatch.com