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Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:AVU) announced that its partner, a wholly owned subsidiary of Antofagasta PLC, has approved funding and general planning for the next phase of diamond drilling at the Alvalade JV copper project in Portugal.
As quoted in the press release:
Drilling of some 3,500 meters will begin in mid-January 2014 and will focus on:  1) identifying new targets lying under consolidated Tertiary rock cover; and 2) following-up on previous and ongoing work in the Monte de Bela Vista and Monte de Bela Vista West target areas.  In addition, a 2,500-sample soil program will be completed in the target areas between Monte de Bela Vista West and the Caveira Mine. The costs of these programs will be funded by Antofagasta as part of their earn-in agreement.
The government of Portugal has also approved the amalgamation of the three exploration licenses contained in the Alvalade JV into a single exploration license. The new Alvalade license was issued on October 31, 2013, and has been granted until December 31, 2016.
Avrupa Minerals President and CEO, Paul Kuhn, said:
The granting of the license amalgamation and extension of the validity of the exploration rights by the Portuguese government has paved the way for Antofagasta to approve funding for a new drilling program. We will concentrate our next program in target areas along the Neves Corvo trend. Continued improvement of our understanding of the geological and structural aspects of our target areas is leading to new possibilities along all four mineral belts.
Click here to read the Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:AVU) press release
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