Minefinders intersects high gold, silver grades at La Virginia

Minefinders Corp (TSE:MFL) (AMEX:MFN) announced Tuesday it intersected 6.46 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold equivalent over 67 metres at its La Virginia mine near Hermosillo in Sonora State, Mexico.
The Vancouver, B.C.-based company began exploration drilling at the El Campo Santo, Las Huatas and Con Virginia zones in 2010.
Based on the results of the 2010 program, core drilling in 2011 focused on the Las Huatas zone, where gold assays in hole LV11-36C ranged up to 2.0 metres averaging 13.0 g/t of gold, with five separate assay intervals exceeding 3.0 gpt of gold.
Silver assays ranged up to 1,042 g/t of silver over 2 metres, with five assay intervals exceeding 500 g/t. These high-grade intercepts are contained within an overall mineralized interval of 67.0 metres, averaging 6.46 g/t gold equivalent, or 2.33 g/t gold and 247.5 g/t silver.
The company said the high-grade zones in the Las Huatas Zone remain open to depth and laterally along strike.
Other highlights at Las Huatas included two metres of 2.69 g/t gold and 215.1 g/t silver in hole LV11-30C, and 1.96 g/t gold and 189.5 g/t silver over 4.95 metres, including 2.86 g/t gold and 273.9 g/t silver over 2.95 metres in hole LV11-33C.
"We are encouraged by the success of our initial exploration program on the La Virginia property, but with multiple targets remaining to be tested we have a lot of work to complete before we will know the true significance of this discovery," said vice president of exploration, Tench Page.
Highlights from the Con Virginia zone include 2.2 metres of 2.76 g/t gold and 225.4 g/t silver in hole LV11-29C, including 4.44 g/t gold and 363.3 g/t silver over 1.2 metres.
Intercepts from the El Campo Santo zone, located one kilometre north of Con Virginia, are similar to those observed above the 1,800 metre elevation in the Las Huatas zone, the company said, but this program is still in the early stages. New drilling is currently testing the potential of deeper levels of the system.
The precious metals mining and exploration company, whose stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange has jumped 1.19% to $11.90 per share, has drilled over 13,000 metres in 42 completed core holes at the La Virginia property to date. So far, the company has drilled nearly half of its 12,750 metre 2011 drilling target as it advanced towards establishing an NI 43-101 compliant resource.
The 34,000 hectare La Virginia project is located 100 kilometres north-northwest of the company's Dolores Mine.