Shares of Avrupa Minerals (CVE:AVU) rallied over 40% Friday after reporting further drill results from its Covas tungsten joint venture in northwestern Portugal, with the first phase of the drilling program now complete.
Significant intercepts included 11.4 metres at 1.56% tungsten at the Lapa Grande target, and 1.55 metres of 0.79% tungsten at the Telheira target, it told investors today.
The company also said it expanded mineralization at the Castelo target, with drilling showing potential for tungsten southeast of the prior documented mineralized areas.
Shares of Avrupa jumped 3.5 cents to 12 cents on the TSX Venture Exchange this afternoon.
The joint venture project is operated by Avrupa, and funded by Blackheath Resources, under an option agreement signed back in May 2011.
The first phase of the program was designed to confirm and test known tungsten mineralization, and extensions, as well as test new mineral targets.
Avrupa drilled 15 diamond drill holes, totaling 1,606 metres in five different target areas around the Skarn Ring and within the Covas Dome area, receiving results for 13 of the holes thus far.
At Lapa Grande, the company said the recent results validated historic work, and showed the potential for expanding the zone, with the possibility of further mineralization to the northwest, southwest and the south.
Meanwhile, at Telheira, Avrupa says there is further potential on the north, west and south sides of the zone.
The company is planning further work, including re-logging and sampling of historic core and more detailed mapping, to help in the next phase of drilling.
It also said today that further surface work will be done in the coming field season on the Covas Dome area, prior to follow up drilling, as preliminary geological mapping and sampling suggest the presence of gold and tungsten mineralization along a "pronounced east-west lineament".
Covas is a past-producing tungsten mine, and remaining historic resources on the property were estimated at 922,900 metric tonnes of 0.78% tungsten in the indicated and inferred categories by Union Carbide in 1980, based on work including 327 drill holes.
Avrupa noted that the price of tungsten has increased significantly in recent years and is currently around $33 per kilogram of contained tungsten trioxide.
The junior mineral explorer operates two joint ventures in Portugal, including the Alvalade joint venture with Antofagasta for copper-rich massive sulfide deposits, and the Covas joint venture.
In January, the company revealed drilling results from its phase 2 exploration program on its Alvalade joint venture, calling them "highly exciting", with 5,000 metres of follow up drilling planned.
It also has several other precious and base metal targets that it is upgrading to JV-ready status, including the porphyry copper-gold potential in southern Portugal in the Alvito license area.
In addition, Avrupa holds properties in Germany and Kosovo, where in late November, the company announced the discovery of a polymetallic gossan zone on its newly-acquired Slivovo exploration license.
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