Avrupa Minerals, Antofagasta complete phase 1 drilling at Alvalade JV

Avrupa Minerals (CVE:AVU) said Tuesday that together with its joint venture partner Antofagasta Minerals, it has just completed a phase 1 core drilling program in three separate target areas at the Alvalade project in the Pyrite Belt of southern Portugal.

The initial drilling program consisted of eight holes, totaling 3,269.8 metres. Avrupa geologists are currently detail-logging and sampling the new drill core, the commpany said.

The campaign was designed to test targets located within two windows of exposed Paleozoic volcano-sedimentary (VS) rocks that typically host massive sulfide deposits in the Pyrite Belt of both Portugal and Spain.

The company said that its geologists and consultants, as well as as Antofagasta's, have worked together in these windows and elsewhere in the region to update the geological and structural controls of potential mineralization.

Initial geological results and interpretations from the first phase of drilling "clearly support the updated modeling," Avrupa said.

By using the revised geo-structural model, the joint venture is able to open up large new areas to potential targeting, both in the Paleozoic exposures and under Tertiary sediments, which cover more than 75 per cent of the area under the partnership.

In addition, Avrupa said its geologists have now re-logged and selectively sampled over 50,000 metres of historic drill core from 194 drill holes completed by previous explorers within the joint venture area.

The historic data, with information from the just-completed initial drilling program, will be used to plan for a phase 2 drilling campaign - scheduled to start in late August.

Avrupa expects to follow-up on anomalies and observed sulfide mineralization in the first three target areas, as well as to test blind targets around the project license block.
               
Antofagasta has an option to earn in to 51 per cent of the Alvalade joint venture in exchange for expenditures of US$4.3 million. The company has already forwarded US$1.5 million to Avrupa for exploration work so far.

Antofagasta Minerals SA, the mining division of Antofagasta plc (LON:ANTO), has mining activities primarily focused in Chile, where it owns and operates four copper mines. 

Total production in 2012 is expected to be roughly 700,000 tonnes of copper, 11,000 tonnes of molybdenum and 280,000 ounces of gold.

Avrupa Minerals is a junior explorer focused on mineral deposits in politically stable and prospective regions of Europe, including Portugal, Kosovo, and Germany.