Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (AVU: TSXV): Aggressive Project Generator Focused on Politically Stable and Prospective Regions of Europe: Interview with Paul Kuhn, CEO and President

By Allen Alper Jr., President, Metals News Inc.
on 5/9/2019
Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (AVU: TSXV) is a project generator, focused on politically stable and prospective regions of Europe, including Portugal, Kosovo, and Germany. At PDAC2019, we learned from Paul Kuhn, CEO and President of Avrupa Minerals, that their flagship Alvalade VMS Project is a 100%-owned self-funded project, located in the Pyrite Belt of south Portugal, where they recently had a successful drilling campaign that resulted in good grades of copper, zinc, and some gold. Near term plans include getting a joint venture partner for Alvalade, as well as working on their Slivovo gold project in Kosovo. We learned from Mr. Kuhn that Avrupa is also looking for new projects to refill the pipeline.

See a copy, following this article, of a News Release by Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (AVU: TSXV) Released March 11, 2019. It is very relevant.

Avrupa Minerals Ltd.

Allen Alper Jr: This is Allen Alper Jr., President of Metals News, here at PDAC 2019, interviewing Paul Kuhn, CEO and President of Avrupa. Could you give our readers/investors an overview of your Company, your background, your focus and current activities?

Paul Kuhn: Certainly, Al. I'm the CEO and President of Avrupa Minerals. We're listed on the TSX Venture. The symbol is AVU. We're a prospect generator, working in Europe. The word Avrupa actually is the Turkish word for Europe. So we explain ourselves in our name.

We're working in Portugal, and we're working in Kosovo, mostly. We have a couple projects going on in Portugal, where we just finished a drill project on our Alvalade license.

The original discovery was made back in 2014, and we've had a couple of partners since that time. Now we're talking to a potential partner for this project, but we decided to use our own funds to move this one ahead. We needed to get some action in it, because we haven't seen a whole lot of action in the last year.

We drilled six holes, 2500 meters. We've extended our main large, massive sulfide lens to about 600 meters long, 300 meters wide, on average, and 25 meters thick. We'll get some results from that, and we’ve found the starts of a couple of other little lenses and horizons.

Avrupa’s news release of March 11, 2019, headlined the promising results for drill hole SES026: “Avrupa Minerals drills 28.95 meters of 0.48% Copper and 0.77 g/t Gold.”

See a copy of this news release at the end of this article. It’s quite important for the story.

We really worked out the geological situation much better than we had had it before. This is really important because our lenses are a little bit more predictable now, so our drilling should be a little bit more efficient in the future.

So that's our Alvalade project, the Sesmarias prospect area.

Allen Alper Jr: Do you have any estimates on resources there?

Paul Kuhn: No, no, we're not that far along. We have five or six holes in them, in the large 10 lens we're calling it. We have a couple holes into the 2 lens and a couple holes into the new 26 horizon.

We found the stockwork out there under the 8 horizon. Right now we have four lenses/horizons, where we had only two before, and one of them we've extended from 300 meters long to over 600 meters long in this drilling program.

Allen Alper Jr: What have you seen so far as to grade?

Paul Kuhn: Well, previous grades on the 10 lens were about .4% copper and maybe half a gram of gold, maybe a little bit less. The 2 lens carried the high-grade intercept, the first one, and that was a 2% copper intercept. We don't know where that one goes yet. We're still working on that.

The Sesmarias area, where we've been drilling, is just six kilometers from the old Lousal mine, which is a former 50 million metric tonne deposit, a massive sulfide producer back in the mid-20th century, and that's close to our Caveira mine, which is about 10 kilometers farther north. We also have a stockwork zone just north of Lousal, called Monte da Bela Vista, so the actual Monte da Bela Vista Lousal Sesmarias strike is about 10 kilometers. We could have a big district there with Lousal and Sesmarias and we don't know much about our stockworks at Monte da Bela Vista.

Allen Alper Jr: What metals are there?

Paul Kuhn: Copper, zinc and we're beginning to see some gold as well. On March 27, 2019 Avrupa confirmed high grade copper assays of Sesmarias “2” Lens on the Alvalade Project, Portugal:

Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (AVU:TSXV) is pleased to provide assay results for drill hole SES003, which was drilled on the Alvalade Project in 2014, but not analyzed until now, due to its general proximity and similar visible characteristics to drill hole SES002. The SES003 assays were completed now in order to be added into Avrupa’s 3D model of the “2” Lens. Hole SES002 is the Sesmarias “2” Lens discovery hole, and its assay results are also shown below. SES003 added approximately 18 meters of dip length to the “2” Lens, as calculated in 2014. Results from SES003 are comparable to those from SES002, as shown in the tables below.

Allen Alper Jr: Excellent results!

Paul Kuhn: We have an IOCG in South Portugal. This was worked on in conjunction with our partnership of OZ Minerals. OZ spent a year and a half on the project with us. They did not find the big one on the surface. So they've given us the whole thing back, and we own that 100% free and clear. We'll do a little work on that this spring, to upgrade it and see if we get another joint venture going on that one. There are drill targets on that license. There's an area that we have not worked on too much. That looks pretty prospective. So I have some possibilities on that for joint ventures as well. That's Portugal.

A good part of this coming six months, I hope will be spent in Kosovo. We have a gold deposit there, as you know, it's called Slivovo. We own a little bit more than 10% of the project at the moment. Our partner Byrnecut International from Australia, has put the project up for sale. There is an interested party, one which I brought to Byrnecut and they're doing their due diligence on this right now.

We also have the possibility of a generative joint venture, with a company there in Kosovo and I'll know more about that in the next month or so.

Yesterday we spent part of the day, with the Minister of Economic Development of Kosovo and we outlined some ideas for moving forward and some of our plans. They're quite pleased with our continued progress over there. We haven't really worked there for the last couple of years, but now we want to go back and we want to move things along. If I have this joint venture and perhaps some funds from a sale of the Slivovo project, we'll be looking pretty good for this coming year.

Lastly, we're also looking for new pipeline projects. I have not put much into the pipeline in the last couple of years. We've been more or less working on our Portuguese projects to get them moving ahead, but I'm looking at some new ideas around Europe to start the early stage exploration business, so we need to refill the pipeline and that's on tap for most of this year, bit by bit.

Allen Alper Jr: What type of properties would you be looking at?

Paul Kuhn: There are a number of things that I'd like to look at. Certainly we need to put gold property into our portfolio, but I have some ideas on sediment hosted copper deposits, several areas around Europe. I'm positive about continuing work in Portugal and that would be for copper zinc, perhaps iron oxide, and copper gold ideas. There are some possibilities. Of course in Kosovo, if we put together this generative alliance, we'll be looking for both gold and base metal projects.

Allen Alper Jr: Very exciting. So, tell us a little bit about your share structure.

Paul Kuhn: We have about 100 million shares, a little bit more. Stock prices have been stuck at five cents for the last too long. We're hoping that we can get that going again. Half of the shares are held by insiders or friends and people that are following us and so there's maybe a 40% float of the outstanding shares. We're followed by a number of newsletter writers right now, which is great. Four or five of them have been following us the last six months. Mostly because of our Alvalade project and we're looking forward to really getting things going.

Allen Alper Jr: Excellent. So, what do you think are the main reasons that investors should be looking at Avrupa?

Paul Kuhn: Well we're an aggressive prospect generator in Europe. We have good projects. We have two discoveries. We have a strong presence in the Portuguese Pyrite Belt. When we look at our Alvalade project, we have a potential for a large deposit. We have a base in Kosovo, where nobody's really doing any exploring. We're going to go back there now and see if we can do some more Slivovos or bigger than Slivovo. So the investors should keep an eye on our near-term work. The next three to six months, we'll be pushing ahead on several fronts.

Allen Alper Jr: And generating a lot of news.

Paul Kuhn: Yeah! We have a lot of news to generate this year. We're looking forward to that.

Allen Alper Jr: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Paul Kuhn: We’ll finish up in Portugal for the Q1 and get back to Kosovo and have that push us for a little while, until we get our partnership going in Kosovo or in the Pyrite Belt of Portugal.

Allen Alper Jr: Sounds excellent, thank you very much for a very interesting interview. We’ll publish your press releases as they come out so our readers/investors can follow your progress.

Paul Kuhn: Thanks Al, and thank you for interviewing Avrupa Minerals for Metals News.

https://www.avrupaminerals.com/

410-325 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 1Z7 Canada
Phone: +1-604-687-3520
Fax: +1-888-889-4874
Email: info@avrupaminerals.com

The following is a copy of a News Release by Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (AVU:TSXV)

Released March 11, 2019 NR 04 - 2019

Avrupa drills 28.95 meters of 0.48% Copper and 0.77 g/t Gold at Sesmarias

Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (AVU:TSXV) is pleased to report on drilling results at its 100%-owned Sesmarias Prospect, located on the Alvalade license in the Pyrite Belt of south Portugal. This program explored new sectors of the Sesmarias Prospect and confirmed a new exploration and mineralization model for the District. The Company completed six holes totaling 2,498 meters and reported on successful progress in an earlier news release, dated February 11, 2019.

Highlights from the program include the following results:

SES026 intercepted 28.95 meters of 0.48% copper, 0.77 g/t gold, 15.7 ppm silver, 0.52% lead and 1.31% zinc.

SES026 extended the “10” Lens by 300 meters to the north from previous drilling.

The “10” Lens is now at 600 meters x 300 meters x 25 meters.

Mise-à-la-masse (MALM) geophysical anomalism extends another 150 meters past SES026 location.

SES028 intercepted the edge of a significant feeder zone stockwork beneath the “8” Lens. Assays indicated anomalous gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc throughout the entire length of the stockwork from 373.40 meters to 460.80 meters in depth, beneath the 8 Lens.

Discovered a possible new mineralized horizon in SES026, located above the “10” Lens, and intersected it again in SES027 and SES029.

Confirmed that the high grade “2” Lens is a fault-bounded fragment of massive sulfide mineralization with origin yet to be determined. Hole SES003, drilled previously on this target, is now also being assayed and will be reported shortly.

Continued re-logging of historic drill holes has upgraded targets in the northern portions of the Sesmarias Prospect.

Each hole drilled in this exploration phase of the Project has enhanced the revamping of the exploration model. Combined with strong assay results in SES026, in particular, the information will be used in the next drill targeting exercise for this large area.

Paul W. Kuhn, President and CEO of Avrupa Minerals, said, “Avrupa Minerals is excited about the continued positive results of the drilling on the “10” Lens. We have substantially increased the size and volume of known massive sulfide mineralization, as well as intercepted continued base and precious metal mineralization. With only seven holes into the lens itself, six of which intercepted between 15 and 58 meters of massive sulfides, we see plenty of further potential to upgrade the known prospect at Sesmarias. Discovery of the stockwork system in SES028 further supports that the Sesmarias system is a robust mineralizing event. We look forward to our next phase of the program.”

SES026 intercepted 28.95 meters of massive sulfide mineralization grading 0.48% copper and 0.77 g/t gold, extending the “10” massive sulfide lens to at least 600 meters in strike length. The top seven meters of the intercept contained higher grade silver, copper, lead, and zinc, followed by a nine-meter interval of 1.09 g/t gold, as shown in the table below. The hole was collared on a geophysical anomaly which extends a further 150 meters beyond the SES026 location. At this time, the estimated average dimensions of the 10 Lens are 600 meters long x 300 meters wide x 25 meters thick. The mineralization is open to the east boundary fault and to the west intersection of the Devonian host rocks and the Tertiary gravels. The lens appears to be cut by post-mineral dikes to the north and remains open to the south, though faulting may truncate the lens about 100 meters south of SES021.

SES026From (m) To

(m) Intercept (m) Au (g/t)Ag (ppm) Cu (%) Pb (%) Zn (%)

Total lens 385.70 414.65 28.95 0.77 15.7 0.48 0.52 1.31

Base metal zone 385.70 392.70 7.00 0.52 19.0 0.66 0.57 1.44

Gold zone 392.70 401.70 9.00 1.09 13.7 0.40 .50 1.31

Table 1. Results from SES026

Mineralization in SES026 showed significantly higher gold values compared to previous drilling on the 10 Lens, as shown below, as well as slightly higher overall copper values.

Drill hole ID From (m) To

(m) Intercept (m) Au (g/t)Ag (ppm) Cu (%) Pb (%) Zn (%)

SES010228.40 286.25 57.85 0.45 25.1 0.32 0.61 1.95

SES019263.50 315.20 51.70 0.40 17.35 0.44 0.75 2.71

including 264.15 299.05 34.90 0.38 20.67 0.40 0.99 3.46

and including 280.45 290.95 10.50 0.37 21.71 0.36 1.71 5.18

SES020277.85 287.55 9.70 0.47 24.70 0.25 0.57 0.99

297.70 319.95 22.25 0.53 20.54 0.55 0.59 0.66

325.00 334.10 9.10 0.68 11.31 0.32 0.14 0.52

337.85 356.65 18.80 0.26 6.40 0.33 0.14 0.64

SES021262.85 277.65 14.80 0.43 9.82 0.36 0.29 0.40

SES022323.90 376.00 52.10 0.62 17.31 0.43 0.49 0.98

Table 2. Previous drill results on the “10” Lens

The following figures demonstrate the robustness and increased size of the “10” Lens at Sesmarias. Note the open areas to the north of the known massive sulfide locations. The Sesmarias Prospect area continues for a further 1000 meters to the north of the area of the present phase of drilling.

Figure 2. Plan view of the “10” Lens, “2” Lens, and “8-9” Lens/Horizon (red) and East Bounding Fault zone (transparent blue). The recently drilled holes are highlighted with a transparent box.

Figure 3. Long section view (looking to the east) of the “2” Lens, “26” Horizon and “10” Lens (in red). Note the large, unexplored area to the left of the 26 Horizon and the 10 Lens. The “8” Lens Area and “9” Horizon are marked with dashed red lines. The Eastern Bounding Fault is the darker blue background. The recently drilled holes are highlighted with a transparent box.

SES028 hit 87.40 meters of stockwork quartz-iron sulfide veining that marks the possible edge of a feeder zone for the, previously-discovered “8” Lens. Assays indicated anomalous gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc throughout the entire length of the stockwork from 373.40 meters to 460.80 meters in depth, beneath the 8 Lens. Examples of variable intervals of anomalism include:

From (m) To (m) Total (m) Au ppm) Ag (ppm) Cu (ppm) Pb (%) Zn (%)

373.40 399.95 26.55 0.09

373.40 405.65 32.25 0.3

379.20 387.60 8.40 0.26

393.40 398.30 4.90 0.28

444.30 460.80 16.50 8.8 0.24 0.44

447.30 460.80 13.50 0.18

SES026, SES027, and SES029 intersected a horizon of stockwork quartz-sulfide veining located 20-40 meters above the “10” lens (see Figure 3). While mostly iron sulfides, the location of the horizon suggests potential for another possible mineral layer in the Sesmarias massive sulfide system.

Avrupa Minerals Ltd. is a growth-oriented junior exploration and development company directed to discovery of mineral deposits, using a prospect generator model. The Company holds one 100%-owned, self-funded flagship project, the Alvalade VMS Project. Avrupa focuses its project generation work in politically stable and prospective regions of Europe, including Portugal, Kosovo, and Germany.

For additional information, contact Avrupa Minerals Ltd. at 1-604-687-3520 or visit our website at www.avrupaminerals.com.

On behalf of the Board,

“Paul W. Kuhn”

Paul W. Kuhn, President & Director

This news release was prepared by Company management, who take full responsibility for its content. Paul W. Kuhn, President and CEO of Avrupa Minerals, a Licensed Professional Geologist and a Registered Member of the Society of Mining Engineers, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators. He has reviewed the technical disclosure in this release. Mr. Kuhn, the QP, has not only reviewed, but prepared and supervised the preparation or approval of the scientific and technical content in the news release.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.