Mike Fagan,
Editor
April 11, 2022
Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (TSX-V: AVU)(OTC: AVPMF) — currently trading below C$0.10 per share — has intersected 0.48% copper and 2.17% zinc over 22.9 meters at the Alvalade copper-zinc project located in Alentejo, Portugal.
The drilling focus is on the Sesmarias North target area where 17 diamond drill holes have been completed — totaling 8,900 meters — along a strike length of 400 meters.
Importantly, the results further prove the continuity of the massive sulfide mineralization Avrupa is targeting by way of its joint venture with Sandfire MATSA.
Avrupa CEO Paul Kuhn — whom you’re about to hear from directly in our exclusive interview — commented via press release:
“The new drill results continue to exhibit the strength of the Sesmarias North massive sulfide mineralization. We look forward to further drilling underneath SES21-046 and SES21-044 in this sector to increase the size of the massive sulfide body and hopefully the grade of the copper-zinc mineralization. We also expect to continue to work southwards towards the Central sector and the original discovery area. We have a further 1.1 kilometers of strike length to the south still to test, and unknown distance to the north of the initial JV drilling. We expect a busy summer drilling season at Sesmarias and other targets along the Pyrite Belt trend that we control in the Alvalade Project.”
Drilling is scheduled to resume at the 115 sq km Alvalade property in June wherein Sandfire MATSA, as operator, can initially earn-in 51% with the potential to increase that interest to 85% by preparing a bankable feasibility study on the project.
Additionally, Avrupa has acquired three copper-zinc properties in Finland’s Pyhasälmi VMS District plus a gold property in Finland’s Oijärvi Greenstone Belt.
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The three newly-acquired base metals properties cover a very large area of ~600 sq km within the mineral belt. Next steps will include reviewing and cataloging drill core from the Kolima Project. The Avrupa team plans to release updates on the other three Finland projects as initial work programs are prepared.
The timing is spot on for Avrupa Minerals in its pursuit of base metals deposits with a particular focus on copper. The red metal is currently trading near all-time highs above US$4.70 per pound as the global EV megatrend places additional demand on the metal against a backdrop of constrained supply.
EVs require about 200 pounds of copper per vehicle, which is about 4X that of your typical gas-powered car. Bloomberg projects that copper miners need to double the amount of global copper production in the next 20 years — from the current 20Mt a year to 40Mt — just to meet the increased demand resulting from the current growth rate in EVs.
For speculators, Avrupa Minerals — with its minuscule C$4 million market cap — provides exposure to copper plus other metals via an early-stage exploration firm with multiple projects on multiple continents.
The next round of exploration news will be coming out of Finland and will be quickly followed by updates out of Portugal as drilling resumes there in June.
Our own Gerardo Del Real of Junior Resource Monthly caught up with Avrupa Minerals CEO Paul Kuhn to go over the advancement of the Kolima copper-zinc project, Finland, plus the upcoming summer drill program at the Alvalade copper-zinc project, Portugal. Enjoy!
Yours in profits,
Mike Fagan
Editor, Resource Stock Digest