Avrupa Minerals Discovers Gold Mineralization on Sabroso License, NW Portugal

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/02/13 -- Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: AVU)(FRANKFURT: 8AM) is pleased to provide an update on exploration progress in the North Portugal tungsten-gold belt. The Company is exploring five licenses in the developing belt, including the Covas tungsten license, which is being explored through a joint venture with Blackheath Minerals (see news releases of March 1, 2013 and March 28, 2013).

Avrupa continues to evaluate and upgrade target possibilities on its northern Portugal licenses. The Company is actively engaged in attracting potential joint venture partners to assist with further exploration and development of gold projects on the Company's licenses. First-pass work has just been completed on the Sabroso license, and initial exploration work will commence at Candedo within the next few weeks. Further reconnaissance work at Arcas is planned subsequent to the completion of the Candedo exploration.

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Sabroso Property

Results from first pass sampling of sheeted and stockwork quartz veining in two separate target areas within the Sabroso license area have returned with anomalous gold results. Fifty samples were collected, and 25 returned geochemical values of over 1 ppm gold, including eight samples with assay values greater than 10 g/t gold. The samples were collected from swarms and stockworks of small quartz veins with widths from 2 cm to 50 cm and hosted in granite country rock. The type of deposit targeted by the Avrupa technical staff is known as intrusion-related gold mineralization, where a high density of gold-bearing veins is important to the ability to outline a mineable metal deposit. Future work on the license, acquired at the end of 2012, will be focused on delineating targets where the density of gold-bearing veins is significantly higher than normal. The priorities on the Sabroso license include the Grovelas and the Godinhacos target areas. Both targets involve swarms of quartz veins related to parallel, greater than one-kilometer-wide, NE-striking structural zones hosted in granite rocks. Further reconnaissance work may outline other areas in this prospective license.

Arga Property

The Arga license, acquired in early 2012, lies adjacent to the Covas license. The target area is dominated by northwest-trending structural zones containing numerous sulfide-bearing veins. Several zones are present, with the main trends greater than five kilometers in length and striking directly towards the Covas tungsten prospect to the north. The Portuguese Geological Survey mapped the area in the 1990's and collected over 3,600 soil samples in portions of the main structural zones. Review of the data shows strong, zoned correlation of anomalous geochemistry in the main northwest-trending zones which is typical for intrusion-related gold deposits and for tungsten deposits. The anomalous results include those for tungsten, bismuth, arsenic, silver, molybdenum, zinc, lead, cooper, and tin. Analysis for gold in the soil samples was not done in this investigation.

Arcas Property

Avrupa acquired the Arcas property in mid-2012. At that time, the Company had collected a total of five select samples of quartz vein material around the project area that averaged 2.15 ppm gold and ranged from 0.405 ppm gold to 3.89 ppm gold. Follow-up reconnaissance and prospecting have now indicated at least three potential target areas of northeast-trending and east-west trending quartz veins hosted in granitic rocks, as at Sabroso. A number of old workings, of undetermined age, are present in these areas. In addition, the Company discovered, near the center of the license, one zone of massive silicification over one kilometer long and up to 30 meters wide. Avrupa plans to carry out a license-wide stream sediment sampling and prospecting program later this spring to better delineate prospective gold target areas.

Candedo Property

Avrupa acquired the Candedo license at the end of 2012. The main target area is located around the old underground Jarica silver mine that was first discovered by the Romans, and then re-opened during the early 20th century. Some extraction and exploration were reported at that time, and again in the mid 1980's, but little work has been completed since those times, and little is known about the actual mineral zone, itself. Historic records from the period 1912 to 1919 indicate that silver grades were locally high, up to +1,000 ppm, but Avrupa has not yet physically verified this information, as access to the old workings is not possible at this time. Old production records have not been located, but a total of 700-1,000 meters of tunneling on four levels of underground workings was mapped in the year 1986. The mineralization was described as a silicified breccia zone hosted in two parallel northerly-trending fault zones. The Company's near-term plan is to determine the potential for further silver and gold mineralization along the surface-visible, two-kilometer-long fault zone that hosts the Jarica mineralization, and in several nearby locations where other old workings are present.

Avrupa Minerals Ltd. is a growth-oriented 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.

The Company currently holds 16 exploration licenses in three European countries, including 10 in Portugal covering 2,276 km2, five in Kosovo covering 153 km2, and one in Germany covering 307 km2. Avrupa operates two joint ventures in Portugal, covering four of the licenses, including:

--  The Alvalade JV, with Antofagasta Minerals SA, covering three licenses
    in the Iberian Pyrite Belt of southern Portugal, for Cu-rich massive
    sulfide deposits; and

--  The Covas JV, with Blackheath Resources, covering one license in
    northern Portugal, for intrusion-related Au-W deposits

Avrupa is currently upgrading precious and base metal targets to JV-ready status in a variety of districts on their other licenses, with the idea of attracting potential partners to project-specific and/or regional exploration programs.

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 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.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Avrupa Minerals Ltd.

1-604-687-3520

1-888-889-4874 (FAX)
www.avrupaminerals.com