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.
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