Part article: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1046...

Minefinders’ market cap is close to book value and half base case economic study of Dolores mine:

Minefinders Corporation Ltd. (MFN) has a market cap of about $250 million, slightly above the book value of its Dolores gold-silver mine in Chihuahua, Mexico. Current book value of the Dolores mine, including property, plant, and equipment plus development costs, totaled $203 million as of the end of June 2008. The total budget for the project is $191 million, which includes about $10 million for contingency, with available cash and credit to complete construction. Incidentally, Minefinders recently negotiated an additional $10 million in credit for additional working capital.

Minefinders recently began leaching ore, a major milestone, and anticipates its first gold and silver production in the next few weeks. Previously they had targeted producing 10,000 ounces of gold and 350,000 ounces of silver in the remainder of 2008. They report crushing at a rate of 15,000 tpd, close to the design capacity of 18,000 tpd. Estimated operating cost for gold equivalent during ramp up may range from $400 to $450 per gold equivalent ounce, declining to $297 per gold equivalent ounce over the average life of the mine, scheduled for 15 years.

The Dolores open pit mine currently has 99.3 million tonnes of Proven and Probable reserves, containing 2.44 million ounces gold and 126.6 million ounces of silver. The most recent economic study estimated an NPV at a discount rate of 3% to be $563 million (metal assumptions of $675 gold and $13 silver). The study did not include the potential benefit of adding a 3,000 tpd flotation circuit to increase recoveries of gold and silver in the pit, or located in a high-grade gold-silver resource below and parallel to the identified reserve. As Minefinder’s market capitalization is close to the book value of its investment, and less than one half of its base case economic study, we also consider the company to be significantly undervalued and of interest to value investors.