Minefinders Corporation (TSE: MFL, NYSE AMEX: MFN) is a Vancouver, Canada based mining company operating the multi-million ounce Dolores gold and silver mine located in northern Mexico.  With a goal to maintain and increase shareholder value through the optimization of the Dolores mine, development of the La Bolsa project and grass roots exploration in northern Mexico, Minefinders is  poised for growth in the future.

Phase 2 leach at the Dolores Mine

According to Mark Bailey, President and CEO of Minefinders Corporation, they are in a good position for a profitable year.  He said, “We are doing really well right now.  We are ramping up production and following a strong fourth quarter in 2010, we expect to have a very good first quarter in 2011.  We are producing a lot of silver right now because we are at the top of the Dolores deposit and it's very high grade silver.”  When Bailey says there is a lot of silver, he means it.  “This year we will produce between 3.3 and 3.5 million ounces of silver, possibly a bit more. We're stacking almost 50 grams per tonnne of silver at our mine and running a rate of 18,000 tons per day,” Bailey said. 

Minefinders also benefits from gold production as part of their business.  Bailey said, “Gold recovery this year will be 65 to 70 thousand ounces of gold.  Also our cash costs this year are guided to be under $500 (per gold equivalent per ounceAt these prices, $35 to $36 dollar silver and $1,400 gold, we should make good revenue on this project.  We'll probably make $40 to $45 million dollars in revenue this first quarter, which is half of what we did in all of last year, so obviously it's going to be a pretty good year for us.”

Minefinders’ Assets

All of this is good news for Minefinders investors, according to Bailey, “We only have 79 million shares outstanding and  we’ve worked hard not to dilute our shareholders.  We're still trading at a discount to our Net Asset Value (NAV) and to our proven and probable reserve, which is over 2.4 million ounces of gold and 126 million ounces of silver.  We expect that to change in the next quarter as we start hitting our stride in production and the markets rerate us as a producer.”  Bailey is looking for the market to take another look at Minefinders after fixing a key piece of equipment that slowed production, and their share price, last year.   Bailey said, “I think this quarter is going to be good, the fourth quarter was good, so certainly after the second quarter of this year, the market should rerate us as a producer which should bode well for our share price.”  Minefinders shares are currently trading at around $11 and have a history of trading between $11 and $11.50.   Bailey said, “It's been a little weak, but we expect to have some good news this quarter.  We'll put out our first quarter production results, which should be in early April, so I hope we get another lift in our share price to reflect our improving production profile.”

Minefinders is led by a staff that is committed to growth.  Bailey said, “We're all professional mining people.  We've been in the business for 30 to 35 years, and so have all of the members of our board of directors.  We're doing expansion work, adding a mill and developing the underground and we're also having exploration success.  We have a good exploration team.  whodiscovered a new gold and silver system at our La Virginia project and we are drilling on it with two core rigs.”  In addition, Minefinders has a smaller development project, La Bolsa, a 300,000 ounce gold deposit and they are currently working on getting the necessary permits for.  Bailey said, “As soon as we get it permitted, we will make a construction decision.”

La Virginia - Minefinders current grass roots exploration project

Bailey is optimistic about Minefinders future.  He said, “We're going to do much, much better. It's been a long time.  We discovered these properties and we have put 15 years into them to bring them to this point.  It's satisfying to discover the deposit and then take it all the way to production and then see the benefit of that now that it is generating $40 to $45 million dollars of revenue in a quarter.” 

With their new found liquidity, having money is a new environment for Minefinders.  Bailey said, “  It gives the company the leverage to do other things, to build another mine, to expand Dolores by adding a mill anddeveloping the underground – these are not cheap things to do.  We'd like to go underground at Dolores – that's expected to be a $30 million dollar program, and the mill we are looking at is going to be a $140 million dollars or more to put in.  The mill will improve recoveries, and that will improve our production, so that's something we're going to do, we just haven't settled on exact size of the mill yet.   It does take money to expand but we're well funded with $150 million dollars in the bank and we are generating cash so this year we should be able to do everything we want to do.”

Overall, Bailey believes that Minefinders is a good value.  He said, “We trade at less than $200 dollars per ounce for proven and probable reserves.  The industry average is anywhere between $300 to $500, so we are trading at a discount.  You can invest in gold and silver a lot less expensively by investing in a gold and silver mining company rather than buying the physical products.      We're a silver producer and we're a gold producer and this year we're going to be a major silver player this year.  I'm hopeful that as we start showing production the market will start to realize that. We also have a good portfolio of exploration properties that gives us a lot of life behind the Dolores mine besides the 15 years that this mine has.  We are a company with a lot of opportunity.”

With a significant resource, excellent financing and opportunities for the future, Minefinders is in an excellent position for a future.   

For more information:

http://www.minefinders.com

Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

Jonathan Hackshaw

Director of Corporate Communications

Toll Free in Canada and the US: (866) 687-6263

Outside Canada and the US: (604) 687-6263

Email - jon@minefinders.com

Mike Wills

Investor Relations Representative

Toll Free in Canada and the US: (866) 687-6263

Outside Canada and the US: (604) 687-6263

Email - mike@minefinders.com