Europacific Metals Hunts for Gold and Copper in Portugal
By Peter Kennedy
Europacific Metals Inc. [EUP-TSXV, AUCCF-OTCQB] is working to develop a basket of gold, and gold copper projects in Portugal, a modern European country with first class infrastructure and a history of mining that dates back to the Roman Empire.
By securing access to new copper and gold reserves through its exploration efforts, Europacific believes that its shareholders will benefit from potentially lucrative opportunities in a global market that is hungry for such metals.
The strategy is led by CEO and director Karim Rayani, a financier and management consultant who has been involved in funding domestic and international mineral exploration for the past 20 years. He believes that due to increasing demand for copper, driven by infrastructure projects, renewable energy initiatives, and electric vehicle adoption, the market is facing a potential supply-demand imbalance. The result, he believes, will be higher prices that will benefit producers.
Portugal is thought to be the right venue for this strategy as the country hosts world-class mineral deposits such as Neves-Corvo, Panasqueira and Aljustrel, one of the European Union’s major producers of tin, lithium and tungsten.
It is why EuroPacific has secured the right to acquire up to a 100% interest in a private Portuguese company, Indice Crucial Lda that holds exploration rights on several past producing copper and gold projects as well as other advanced gold exploration applications located on the Barrancos Copper-Gold properties in central Portugal. Those properties cover 74 square kilometres.
EuroPacific also owns a 100% equity interest in another private Portuguese company (EVX Portugal) which holds legal exploration rights from the Portugal Government on the Borba 2 properties in the Alentego region of southern Portugal.
The Borba 2 exploration licence application includes four separate projects covering 230 square kilometres. The most advanced project is the Miguel Vacas Copper project, a former open pit heap leach mine that is located approximately 180 kilometres east by road from Lisbon, and approximately 70 kilometres from Evora, the Alentejo region capital.
Records show that between the 1920s and 1990, 346,068 tonnes of oxide copper mineralization were mined, but due to poor recovery, only 895 tonnes of copper metal were actually produced. The mine was closed in 1986 due to financial trouble after producing 464,100 tonnes of ore with an average grade of 2.1% copper.
However, the Miguel Vacas target has a well-documented potential to host precious and base metals mineralization and having chosen to make Miguel Vacas the focus of its exploration efforts this year, Europacific recently launched a program that was expected to feature a minimum of 1,500 metres of drilling. The objective is to further define a shallow open pit resource of oxide copper mineralization which will be followed by step out drilling on deeper sulphide ore.
The company recently announced a drill program expansion with an additional hole down to 350 meters targeting the high-grade zone below the fourth hole where the Company intersected a mineralized section (results pending).
Assays for the first hole [EBMV001], confirmed previous core observations and returned better than expected results, including a continuous intercept of 22.8 metres, grading 2.76% copper, including 9.0 metres grading 7.49% copper. EBMV001 was collared near the southern limit of the old open pit and was planned to confirm results obtained approximately at the same section with hole BOMV 15-001 drilled in 2015.
The hole also intercepted a broad mineralized interval with copper secondary minerals associated with a wide [+30 metre thick] polyphase breccia/shear zone and has shown significantly better result lying approximately at the same position.
“We are very pleased with these initial results from the Miguel Vacas Copper Project,’’ said Rayani. “The first intercept not only confirms and validates the high-grade nature of the deposit, but the continuity of the zone,’’ he said. “We have also opened the potential for a new extension to the North, which is very exciting.’’
Rayani went on to say that the company looks forward to receiving the next sampling results from the other holes which have already confirmed the presence of mineralized breccia to the south of the Miguel Vacas pit.
The company said a total of five holes have been completed to date and all intercepted the main cupriferous breccia/shear. In press release on May 22, 2024, the company said a sixth hole was in progress and will be southern-most drilled to date by Europacific
It said step out drilling will be undertaken at a later stage focused on the assessment of the sulphide-rich (over 80 metre) part of the deposit below the oxidized blanket.
Since being named CEO in October, 2023, Rayani has made several changes to streamline operations, optimize resources and enhance productivity across all aspects of its operations. “We prioritize and recognize the importance of sustainable and social initiatives to the well-being of our communities as we develop our asset portfolio,’’ he said.
“A two-year exploration plan has been approved internally for the advancement of the project where we fee a resource can be developed,’’ Rayani has said.
Aside from Miguel Vacas, the Borba 2 assets include the Mostardeira Copper Gold project. This copper-gold mine area located approximately 2.0 kilometres south of the town of Estremoz represents a wide WSW-ESE shear zone that is developed for at least 700 metres along strike and is open in both directions. This shear zone has been historically mined for copper with most of the mining works concentrated along a thin high-grade copper zone that was probably running over 5.0% copper. It is hosted by Silurian and Devonian metasediments.
Channel sampling by Rio Narcea (2006) shows the following mineralized intervals: 2.60 metres grading 4.15 g/t gold, 0.40% copper including 0.60 metres grading 11.20 g/t gold and 0.65% copper and another interval grading 2.40 g/t gold, 0.82% copper and 80 g/t silver. The average grade for the total of 34 samples assayed is 1.54 g/t gold, 22 g/t silver and 0.25% copper, with a maximum of 11.20 g/t gold and a minimum of 0.10 g/t gold
Borba 2 also includes the Almagreira Gold Project, where gold epithermal mineralization occurs in altered volcanics and carbonates, as well as the The Bugalho Gold Copper Mine where dump samples of silicified and sheared acid tuffs from the Bugalho mine area assayed up to 10.97 g/t gold, 5.36% copper and 20 g/t silver. The company said six out of 18 samples assayed2.7 g/t gold. Peak copper assays returned 20.19% copper.
On June 25, 2024, Europacifc shares were trading at $0.04 in a 52-week range of $0.06 and $0.015, leaving the company with a market cap $2.7 million, based on 68 million shares outstanding.