Avrupa Minerals resumes core drilling at Monte de Bela Vista target on joint venture property

Avrupa Minerals (CVE:AVU) says that core drilling has resumed at the Monte de Bela Vista target on its Alvalade joint venture with Antofagasta Minerals. 

This will be the fourth hole drilled at the target, the companies said, which is located less than 2km north of the old Lousal mine on the Neves Corvo mineral trend. 

Plans are underway for two to three drill holes, and up to 1,600 metres at several targets in phase 3b of drilling. Earlier this year, 2,756 metres were drilled in phase 3a. 

The companies said results from the earlier phase showed the "positive potential" at Monte de Bela Vista, with hole MBV03 intersecting several zones of quartz-sulfide mineralization, including a 65-metre wide zone at a depth of 426 to 491 metres, with copper values averaging close to 0.1%. 

Avrupa said Tuesday these results compared favourably with prior holes. 

"Geological and geochemical interpretations continue to indicate potential for copper-bearing massive sulfide mineralization in the Monte da Bela Vista area," the mining exploration company explained in its release. 

The current fourth hole, MBV04, collared another 500 metres south of MBV03, is designed to further test for copper-bearing massive sulfide mineralization at the target area.

"The Avrupa team continues to upgrade its knowledge in the Pyrite Belt, as it uses both historic and new geochemical, geological, and geophysical data to better vector in to possible massive sulfide mineralization on a large, expansive land position," said CEO of Avrupa, Paul Kuhn. 

"The Alvalade JV license package is covered, in large part, by both Tertiary sediments and structural modifications of the rock units, often burying target rock units with up to several hundred meters of overburden. This is a difficult program, but the fact that we can still intercept altered and mineralized target rocks is highly encouraging."             

Indeed, the company also said it received positive phase 3a results from its first drill hole, FUR01, in the Furadouro district, which supports further work in the new area. However, the company still plans to prioritize its efforts to upgrade the Monte de Bela vista target. 

Avrupa is in the process of upgrading precious and base metal targets to joint-venture ready status in a number of districts in Europe, with the aim of attracting potential partners. 

The company, 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 three joint ventures in Portugal, including the Covas partnership with Blackheath Resources (CVE:BHR), and the Alvalade joint venture with Antofagasta Minerals in the southern part of the country.            

Last month, it signed a third deal to option out its Arga tungsten-gold project to tungsten explorer Blackheath, giving Blackheath the option to acquire up to an 85 per cent interest in the property over several years.