Patriot Minefinders surges 28% on planned targets at KM 66

Shares in Patriot Minefinders (OTCBB:PROF) shot up over 28% Tuesday, and are up nearly 9% in the past week, as investors look forward to planned targets on the company's KM 66 project in Mexico this year. 

Its stock was up 4.3 cents, trading at 19.5 cents late this morning.

The company added to the 44% gain it saw last month, after announcing plans to release an updated resource estimate and carry out a preliminary economic assessment on the property this year. 

At the end of last year, Patriot said it signed a letter of intent with Bearing Resources (CVE:BRZ), giving it the option to earn up to a 75 per cent interest in the KM 66 property.

The Vancouver-based company said its focus this year will include advanced-stage work aimed at expanding KM 66, which now contains a 2008 NI 43-101 indicated resource of 6.58 million tonnes grading 28 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, 0.09 g/t gold, 0.41 per cent lead and 1.14 per cent zinc, for 22.3 million silver equivalent ounces.

This resource also includes a further 2.03 million tonnes grading 34 g/t silver, 0.13 g/t gold, 0.54 per cent lead and 0.81 per cent zinc, for just over 6.3 million silver equivalent ounces in the inferred category, using a cut-off grade of 50 g/t silver equivalent in the La Gloria and Las Palmitas silver-gold-lead-zinc deposits. 

KM 66 covers a five kilometre-long trend of mineralization, which the company said “exhibits similarities” to Goldcorp's (TSE:G) Penasquito and Camino Rojo deposits. 

The focus this year will be on expanding the La Gloria deposit area at the project. Patriot said the breccia zone that hosts the deposit has not been defined, and that the precious and base metal mineralization identified so far on KM 66 “is indicative of a larger mineral system under shallow cover”.

In the year ahead, the company plans to conduct ground a geophysical survey along the mineralized trend and diamond core drilling, which will include holes to confirm extensions of the La Gloria deposit in the immediate areas. 

Patriot also plans to conduct a ground geophysical survey on the recently discovered Victorinos target, five kilometres east of La Gloria, where Bearing has defined a 500 by 600 metre gold-silver-lead-zinc soil anomaly. 

The company expects to test some of the targets defined by geophysics and soil geochemistry this year.