***Updated with the latest share price data on Avrupa Minerals***
Vancouver-based Avrupa Minerals (CVE:AVU) saw its shares rise more than 10 per cent Wednesday after it announced the discovery of a polymetallic gossan zone on its newly-acquired Slivovo exploration license in Kosovo.
The junior explorer's stock rose over 10 per cent to 16 cents on the TSX Venture Exchange, with around 48,000 shares changing hands - far exceeding the average 50-day trading volume of 9,418.
The outcropping and gold-bearing discovery is located around 15 km southeast of Prishtine, the capital city of Kosovo. Late last year, the company's geologists discovered the gossan zone near the village of Pester, and applied for an exploration license surrounding the prospect.
The Slivovo exploration license was granted to Avrupa's subsidiary in June.
The vertically-oriented gossan zone, which the company said may represent leached massive sulfide material, is 200 metres long with an average width of 100 metres, and a height of 75 metres.
Rock chip sampling of the Pester gossan zone returned an average of 1,825 parts per million (ppm) of lead, 3,647 ppm of zinc, 11.47 ppm silver, and 2.09 ppm of gold from 22 samples.
Geological mapping of the area has since indicated potential for "gold-bearing, massive sulfide mineralization of the style common in the Vardar Zone", Avrupa said, which extends through east-central Europe.
The junior explorer noted that mining activities in the Vardar Zone for base metals, silver and gold have been known since the Roman times. Two nearby massive sulfide deposits, Stan Terg and Artana, are now being mined by Trepca Mines - the former state-backed mining company of Kosovo.
Avrupa said it has continued first-pass exploration work during the past few months, and outlined a blind massive sulfide drilling target beneath the gossan zone. It also found more gold-bearing rock units in the Pester area as soil and rock chip sampling outlined two areas with anomalous gold results.
The first of these areas surrounds the gossan zone, and measures around 500 by 150 metres in size and is potentially open along strike, while the other gold anomaly lies nearby altered intrusive rocks and is 900 metres long, with a known width of 100 to 150 metres.
The company said it is not possible at this time to determine the actual sub-surface projection of the outcropping mineralized target rocks, and is in the process of making applications for trenching of this new discovery.
Avrupa expects to receive permits for work late in the first quarter of next year, when the end of winter conditions will allow for surface exploration work on the license area.
The company holds five exploration licenses that cover approximately 153.3 square kilometres in Kosovo. In addition to the Slivovo discovery, it has drill-ready targets on the Kamenica porphyry prospect, also close to Prishtine, and on the Glavej/Selac massive sulfide prospect, near Mitrovice in northern Kosovo.
It also holds the early-stage Koritnik gold target in southern Kosovo, as well as properties in Portugal and Germany.
Avrupa operates two joint ventures in Portugal, including the Alvalade joint venture with Antofagasta for copper-rich massive sulfide deposits, and the Covas joint venture with Blackheath Resources (CVE:BHR) in northern Portugal, for intrusion-related, gold-tungsten deposits.
On Monday, the company reported first drill results from the Covas joint venture, which the company said confirms the high grade tungsten nature of historic results from the 1970s.
The company 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.
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