Avrupa Minerals Ltd. said it has signed a non-binding letter of intent with a subsidiary of an international mining company to option out three exploration projects in the Pyrite Belt of south Portugal.
Avrupa said the unidentified partner will provide a first-stage earn-in amount of €13mln, or about C$20.3mln, for exploration programmes over the next three years to acquire a 51% interest in the projects. Avrupa said the parties are finalizing a definitive agreement for each of the licences.
Paul W. Kuhn, Avrupa president and chief executive, said the company’s new partner “will provide funding and expertise for the exploration programmes and will provide superior technical experience to develop potentially large-scale mining operations.”
“Our licences cover some of the most prospective areas of the Pyrite Belt in Portugal, and we look forward to following up on our successful drill intercepts from three years ago,” Kuhn said.
Avrupa said the letter of intent includes the following earn-in terms for each project:
Alvalade: For 51% of the licence, spend €10mln over the next three years (including 30,000 meters of drilling); for an additional 24%, produce a feasibility study on any one particular project within the licence area by the end of the pre-exploitation licence period, or by the end of 2023, whichever is earliest.
Marateca: For 51% of the licence, spend €2mln over the next two years, including 10,000 meters of drilling; for an additional 9%, spend €4mln over the following two years, including a minimum of 10,000 meters of drilling; and for another 10%, produce a pre-feasibility study on any one particular project within the licence area by the end of 2023.
Mertola: For 51% of the licence, spend €1mln by the end of the exploration licence period in 2019, including at least 2,000 meters of drilling; for an additional 9%, spend €2mln within two years of the start of the pre-exploitation licence, including a minimum of 6,000 meters of drilling; and for another 10%, produce a pre-feasibility study, within three years of the 60% earn-in, or by the end of the pre-exploitation licence period, on any one particular project within the licence area.
Avrupa said it considers the three license areas to be highly prospective for copper and zinc. It said the Iberian Pyrite Belt of Spain and Portugal reportedly hosts or has hosted approximately 2bn metric tons of massive sulphide material from more than 85 known prospects, former producers and currently producing mines, all located within the Volcano-Sedimentary rock formation that runs from Seville, Spain, to near Lisbon, Portugal.
Avrupa said the Alvalade licence contains past copper-zinc-iron producers at the Lousal and Caveira mines, two Avrupa mineral discoveries at Sesmarias and Monte da Bela Vista, and at least 35 further, potentially drillable massive sulphide targets around the licence.
Avrupa said the Mertola licence covers past-producers at São Domingos and Chança, brownfields targets at both locations, and greenfields targets at Serra Branca and Alcaria Ruiva, as well as a number of other locations. It said much of the licence still needs first-pass reconnaissance and prospect work.
The Marateca licence is a greenfields exploration project with at least 10 known outcropping or sub-cropping target areas located across the property, along with long strike lengths of buried VS target rocks between the outcropping targets, according to Avrupa.
Avrupa Minerals is a junior exploration and development company focused on discovery, using a prospect generator model, of valuable mineral deposits in politically stable and prospective regions of Europe, including Portugal, Kosovo, and Germany.
Source:Â proactiveinvestors
