Avrupa Minerals Reports Discovery of New Gold Target at the Covas JV Project

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - July 12, 2011) - Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:AVU) is pleased to announce the results of geological mapping, sampling, and drill targeting in the Covas Dome portion of the Covas W-Au project in northwestern Portugal. The work program is being funded by Blackheath Resources Inc. under terms of a recently-announced joint venture program at Covas between Blackheath and Avrupa Minerals (see AVU news release dated May 18, 2011). The most important result of the work by senior American-based consultant Bill Fuchs, Ph.D., C.P.G., of SFM Micro is the identification of a significant Reduced Intrusion-Related Gold (RIRG) target in the Covas Dome area. The target area lies along an east-west trending magnetic lineament and presumed structural zone that, at present, measures +900 meters in length by an average of 100 meters in width. The anomalous zone, generally located in an area of thick vegetation and lack of outcrop, is open-ended to both east and west.

The target zone is defined by the occurrence of quartz veining and mild to occasionally moderate development of gossan in and around the veining. Quartz veins contain arsenopyrite and pyrite and/or oxidized versions of arsenic-bearing sulfides. In addition, there is a quartz-muscovite greisen breccia blowout located in the same trend area. All but one of the 44 samples collected in the anomaly area contained detectable gold, with the best result being 10.2 g/t Au. In addition, many samples contained strongly anomalous silver up to 45.2 ppm Ag, overlimit arsenic greater than 10,000 ppm, and highly anomalous bismuth and lead. Soil samples in the same area also carried anomalous tellurium. Of the 44 samples, eight samples (18%) contained gold values greater than 440 ppb, and 18 samples (41%) contained detectable gold values above 100 ppb. The geochemical signature of the rock sampling results is similar to other RIRG's found in the Tintina Gold Belt of the US and Canada.

In addition to the discovery of the previously-unknown gold potential at Covas, this season's work, combined with earlier work completed in 2009, has delineated and upgraded a total of 17 tungsten and now gold targets lying in the Covas Dome and the Skarn Ring prospect areas. Further work, including trenching and drilling, will be planned for later in the year after Blackheath has completed its TSXV listing obligations and fund-raising program.

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.

For additional information visit our website at www.avrupaminerals.com.

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.