Paul
Kuhn, CEO and Director of Avrupa Minerals TSX: AVU, took a few moments to share
with Metals News the progress that
his company has made on their gold projects around the world.
Said
Kuhn, “We are really busy as you might expect.
I have just come back from the New Orleans show. Prior to that I had a booth at the Munich
conference.” Kuhn and his team have been
traveling to spread the news about what Avrupa Minerals has been able to
accomplish in Europe despite the challenges to the market. He said, “The New Orleans show was quite
slow, but Munich was busy. There was a
moderate amount of knowledgeable interest from the German investors.” Kuhn did see the hallmarks of a slow market
at his latest U.S. show. He said, “Unfortunately,
in New Orleans, the sentiment was pretty low key. It wasn’t as well attended as in the past.”
Despite
his disappointments with the New Orleans show, Kuhn and his team have been
giving the market information on the progress they have made in the recent
past. He said, “We put out a news
release announcing an additional investment from Callinan Royalties on one of
our properties. We signed an exploration
alliance with them for a property in Portugal.”
This new investment will give Avrupa Minerals additional leverage to
explore new properties in the area. Said
Kuhn, “That gave us an opportunity to designate new properties and new targets
as royalty properties.” The investment
will provide funding that will last the company for the near term, bring in new
projects, and upgrade an existing project to JV-ready in Portugal. Kuhn said, “With their agreement, they will
give us an additional $150,000 dollars.
In addition, we will get $350,000 dollars in a private placement.”
Even
though the overall mining sector has been down, Kuhn is happy with Avrupa’s
financial progress. He said, “We have
been pretty pleased with how the financial situation is going. We raised money at $0.10 cents instead of $0.03
cents.” Their stock is weathering the
economic storm in a solid fashion as
well. Kuhn said, “Our stock isn’t high,
but it has stayed steady even after the financing.” Kuhn believes the steady
nature of the stock price is due to the fact that investors realize the company
is making good decisions. He said, “I’d
like to hope we are doing the right thing.”
The
philosophy of the company has remained steady as well. Said Kuhn, “It continues to be that we are a
prospect generator.” He believes that
their success lies in their level of fiscal responsibility. Kuhn said, “We use
our raised money wisely. For every
dollar we raise, we are able to spend $1.50 because we are efficient in our
equity raising. If a person wanted to
invest in Avrupa, they’d know they are getting a good value. That is a good thing at the moment.”
Currently,
the company has a focus on Europe. Said
Kuhn, “We have great properties in Portugal.”
In Portugal, the company has several joint venture partners. Kuhn said, “Blackheath Resources is continuing
to fund our Covas tungsten drilling program. The drilling program in the Pyrite
Belt with Antofagasta Minerals will start again in January. We are looking at good geology. We are getting good results.” Kuhn believes
that gives them an edge in the markets.
He said, “All of that adds up to some investor confidence. There isn’t a lot out there right now.”
Their
work in Portugal is the focus of their operations and exploration. Said Kuhn, “Portugal is our main
program. We have nine licenses. We have 3000 square km of land.” He believes that they will get more support
from the market because they are working with well-known companies in the mining
sector as partners. Kuhn said, “We have
a joint venture with Antofagasta. We
have a joint venture with Blackheath, too.
is going to support us on our southern Portugal Alvito project.”
The money given to
Avrupa Minerals for their project in the south will be used to attract another
partner to forward the project even further than Avrupa has been able to take
it to date. Said Kuhn, “They are going
to help us upgrade the property a bit more to attract a solid joint venture
partner. We have identified an IOCG
target area. We have discovered an
epithermal area and some silver anomalies on that vein. We are drilling with Blackheath.” Outside of Portugal, Avrupa is working on a
German project. Said Kuhn, “We are doing
a bit of follow up work on our German project near Dresden. That is a gold and
tin target.”
Despite
the challenging markets, Kuhn is optimistic about the future for Avrupa
Minerals. He said, “We are continuing on
our best properties and we are generating new ideas for Europe. We are pretty busy. We have $500,000-750,000 dollars in our treasury. Some of it is already designated for
projects. Some of it is not designated.
We are good for the next six months.
If I can get another joint venture we’ll be fine. I don’t want to have to go to the market
right now. It is pretty grim. We want to see our stock move forward. Once the market starts to move forward, we should
get good support from the market. A
number of the newsletter writers have taken notes on what we are doing and seem
to be quite positive about our progress.”
Even with the harsh realities of the market, Kuhn takes a lighthearted
approach. He said, “It is pretty fun
right now. We are toughing it out in a
bad market. We are surviving, but we are
making progress, which sets us apart from other companies. We are moving ahead, but very carefully. We are working in Europe. We are looking for gold and copper and
tungsten in areas that have been overlooked by other explorers. That has been a successful modus operandi for
us.”
http://www.avrupaminerals.com/
Avrupa Minerals
Head Office
410-325 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 1Z7 Canada
Phone: +1-604-687-3520
Fax: +1-888-889-4874
Email: info@avrupaminerals.com