Avrupa Minerals continues to be active in seeking joint venture partners for Portugal properties as exploration carries on

Avrupa Minerals (CVE:AVU) provided Thursday an update on its exploration progress at its licenses in the North Portugal tungsten-gold belt, saying it has been active in seeking potential joint venture partners to assist with the work, with shares rising more than 33 per cent on the back of the news. 

The company is exploring five licenses in the developing belt, including its Covas tungsten joint venture with Blackheath Minerals. 

Avrupa told investors Thursday that it is continuing to evaluate and upgrade target possibilities on its licenses, and is "actively engaged" in attracting potential partners. 

At the Sabroso license, first pass work has just been completed, with sampling returning anomalous gold results, the company said. Fifty samples were collected, and 25 returned geochemical values of over 1 parts per millon (ppm) gold, including eight samples with assay values greater than 10 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.

The company said future work here will be focused on delineating targets where the density of gold-bearing veins is "significantly higher than normal".

At the Candedo property, which was acquired by the company at the end of 2012, initial exploration work is due to start within the next few weeks. The main target area is located around the old underground Jarica silver mine that was first discovered by the Romans, and then re-opened during the early 20th century.

And at the Arcas license, Avrupa said further reconnaissance work is planned after exploration at Candedo wraps up. Last year, the company collected a total of five samples of quartz vein material around the Arcas project area that averaged 2.15 ppm gold, with follow up work indicating at least three potential target areas.  

The junior explorer is planning to carry out a license-wide stream sediment sampling and prospecting program later this spring at Arcas to better delineate prospective gold target areas.            

Avrupa, which has properties in Portugal, Kosovo and Germany, holds a total of 16 exploration licenses in these European countries, including 10 in Portugal. It operates two joint ventures in Portugal, including the Covas partnership, and the Alvalade joint venture with Antofagasta Minerals in the southern part of the country. 

Shares in Avrupa rose 3 cents, or 33.3 per cent, to 12 cents on the TSX Venture Exchange on Thursday.