NEWS

MINEFINDERS REPORTS INCREASED MEASURED AND INDICATED RESOURCE AT DOLORES

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Minefinders Corporation Ltd. (the “Company”) (TSX: MFL / AMEX: MFN), Mark H. Bailey, President and CEO, is pleased to announce the results of updated resource calculations for its 100% owned Dolores project, in Chihuahua, Mexico. Recent infill drilling at Dolores has accomplished its primary objective by increasing the measured and indicated resource by 10% to 93 million tonnes, containing 2.6 million ounces of gold and 123 million ounces of silver (at a 0.3 gpt cutoff). An additional 708,000 ounces of gold and 24.3 million ounces of silver are still classified as an inferred resource within the current block model. Importantly, the overall percentage of measured and indicated resources has been increased and now represents 94% to 98% of the in-pit resource ounces, and 80% of global resource ounces. This constitutes a critical step for the open pit mine plan being developed for the final feasibility study, as the pit will be generated based on pit shells constructed solely on measured and indicated resource material.

Two resource tabulations are presented on the accompanying tables. Table 1 is the global resource, separately presented as “Measured and Indicated” (M&I) and “Inferred” resources. Table 2 shows the same resource categories for material contained within the M&I Pit 30 shell, a Lerchs-Grossman pit shell (optimized for $308 gold and $4.84 silver) created using Whittle mine modeling software. Pit shells optimized for higher gold and silver prices would encompass additional resources contained in the global M&I resource shown on Table 1. This pit shell is a non-engineered pit shell based on the measured and indicated resource model and the best available current data on pit slope angles, mining and operating costs, and recoveries. This base data will be modified for the purposes of the final mine design, as additional data are collected and engineering designs are optimized.

During the 2nd Quarter of 2004, Minefinders’ board of directors received a comprehensive update on the Dolores feasibility study from its engineering team and an estimated date for its completion in the 4th Quarter of 2004. Originally, Minefinders had intended to release interim feasibility results and financial models for the Dolores project in the spring of 2004, but management determined that to do so would, for regulatory reasons, further delay the release of the final feasibility study. The Company expects to complete the final feasibility study in sufficient time to qualify for mine financing and initiate mine construction in 2005.

The engineering team is now concluding a mine design that optimizes financial returns at gold prices of $300 to $350 an ounce and silver prices of $5 to $5.50 an ounce. Management feels that this range of commodities prices will yield an operating mine with a good balance of risk management, with significant positive exposure to higher metals prices. To date, the Company has completed most of the necessary work (infill and condemnation drilling, process metallurgy, geotechnical surveys, environmental surveys, social surveys, resource and mine modeling and detailed engineering) to generate accurate cost assessments, generate optimized pit shells, scaling of process plant and infrastructure, mine equipment lists, etc., to qualify for a bankable level feasibility study.

Condemnation drilling at Dolores is underway and Minefinders geologists will be targeting several peripheral zones of surface mineralization as part of the mine site condemnation drilling program. Construction of the new north-south mine access road commenced in July and is expected to be completed this fall.

About Minefinders

Minefinders is a highly successful precious metals exploration company with its advanced Dolores gold and silver deposit and several ongoing exploration projects in Sonora, Mexico. The Company is presently working on completing a feasibility study on the Dolores deposit and conducting exploration drill programs on its other prospects. Mark H. Bailey, MSc., P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this release.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

MINEFINDERS CORPORATION LTD.

“Mark H. Bailey”

Mark H. Bailey

President and Chief Executive Officer

For further information please visit our website at www.minefinders.com, or contact the Company at

Tel: 1 (866) 687-6263 or Fax: (604) 687-6267.

Safe Harbor Statement under the United States Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995: Statements in this release that are forward-looking, including statements relating to the size, and growth in size, of the Company’s mineral resources and the timing of the further exploration and development of the Dolores Project, are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors identified above and in the company’s periodic filings with the Ontario Securities Commission and the U. S. Securities Exchange Commission. Such information contained herein represents management’s best judgment as of the date hereof based on information currently available. The Company does not intend to update this information and disclaims any legal liability to the contrary.

Table 1

Table 2