Avrupa Minerals Ltd.: Marateca Portugal Drilling Update-Encouraging Initial Results at Serrinha

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Aug. 23, 2011) - Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:AVU) is pleased to provide an update for the ongoing Marateca drill project in the Pyrite Belt of southern Portugal. To date, three holes have been completed, and despite difficult drilling conditions in fault zones and silicified rock units, the program is continuing. Avrupa commenced drilling in the Serrinha District on the Marateca license in late 2010 with a 3-hole, 1300-meter campaign to upgrade the understanding of two classic massive sulfide targets (São Martinho and Monte de Volta) and one stockwork sulfide target (Serrinha).

Avrupa CEO Paul Kuhn commented, "Both the geological and geochemical results from the Serrinha hole surpassed expectations for a first-pass attempt at understanding the potential targets in the Serrinha District at Marateca. The drilling at Serrinha is a real step-out in the northern Pyrite Belt, as the nearest previously known mineralization is located some 30 kilometers to the south of Serrinha at Lagoa Salgada. In addition to the Serrinha District drill targets, there are at least six other target areas around the license that have not yet been advanced to the level of the Serrinha District."

The following table details the status of each hole.

Target area		Hole ID		Planned Depth		Final TD		Comments
São Martinho		SM 11-01		500		333.60		Lost hole; have completed reaming and casing to TD; will restart core drilling from 333.60 meters
Monte de Volta		MV 10-01		500		309.00		Lost hole in fault zone; no decision yet on re-drill
Serrinha		SE 11-01		300		338.80		Reached planned depth, but poor recovery in mineralized target zone at ~ 140-170 meters
Serrinha		SE 11-01A		175		174.40		Re-drill of SE 11-01 to investigate target zone
Totals		4 holes		1475		1155.80

The São Martinho hole was drilled to 333.60 meters, before being lost due to difficult drilling conditions. However, the hole has now been cleaned out and cased to depth, and the Company will continue coring towards the geophysical target which lies at a depth of 375-450 meters. The planned total depth for the hole is 500 meters. The sheared rocks in the lower 150 meters of SM 11-01 normally lie stratigraphically above units that typically host the sulfide units in the Iberian Pyrite Belt.

Drilling at the Monte de Volta target halted above the target zone due to inability to penetrate further. Avrupa may attempt to re-drill the hole to the planned target depth in order to test the geophysical target.

Avrupa re-drilled the upper portions of the Serrinha hole to collect better samples of the zone of strong alteration and possible mineralization, located at 135.82-184.30 meters in SE 11-01. A fine grained (-80 mesh), pyrite-rich sludge sample that was collected from a potentially mineralized zone, located at 156.80-168.10 meters in SE 11-01, ran 263 ppm silver, 993 ppm copper, 997 ppm tungsten, and 358 ppm zinc. The coarse fraction of the same sample ran 80.7 ppm silver and 1060 ppm tungsten. Core recovery from this interval was less than 5%, and thus the Company collared SE 11-01A, about 10 meters to the southeast of SE 11-01.

The core samples from SE 11-01A are strongly altered, weakly pyritic, and un-mineralized felsic volcanic rocks, while the fine pyrite-rich sludge samples contain up to 77.6 ppm silver, averaging 17.7 ppm silver over the 33-meter collection interval at 141.40-174.40 meters. Copper values are also weakly anomalous up to 437 ppm, as are tungsten results, to 520 ppm. The coarse fraction of the sludge also contains anomalous silver values, ranging up to 48.5 ppm over the same interval. Based on the geochemical results, detailed core logging, and physical appearance of the sludge samples in zones of poor core recovery, it appears that the Serrinha holes intersected a zone of stockwork quartz-pyrite mineralization hosted by strongly altered felsic volcanic rocks. The Company plans to further test the Serrinha target with downhole geophysical surveys after completion of the exploratory drilling at Marateca.

Avrupa Minerals Ltd. is a growth-oriented junior exploration and development company focused on aggressive exploration, using a prospect generator model, for valuable mineral deposits in politically stable and prospective regions of Europe, including Portugal and Kosovo.

Avrupa has an exciting portfolio of exploration projects consisting of:

• Copper and Zinc in Portugal at Marateca and in the Alvalade JV project area located in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, where Europe's richest active copper mine is located;

• Tungsten and Gold in Portugal at the Covas JV project area;

• Silver, Lead and Zinc in Kosovo at the Glavej, Kamenica, Selac, and Bajgora properties in the Trepça Mineral Belt of the Vardar Zone, historically, Europe's most productive district for lead and zinc;

• Copper in Kosovo at the Rezhanc property in the Macedonian porphyry belt.

On behalf of the Board,

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 in the State of Washington, USA, 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.