Sovereign nations around the world rely on their mineral wealth as the foundation for all national prosperity. Countries with no mineral wealth comprise the welfare nations of the planet, relying on World Bank handouts and remaining insignificant players on the international stage.

Which is why, for a country like Albania, the development by Canada’s Tirex Resources Ltd. (TXX:TSXv, TIRXF:US) is one of that country’s most anticipated developments of this century.

Tirex is a company purpose-built to explore and develop the large 344 square kilometer Mirdita Property in Albania. The nature of the VMS mineralization in this District provides Tirex investors with exposure to a high grade basket of metals: Copper, Zinc, Gold and Silver. The property is readily accessible by paved and gravel roads and is located 70 km north of the capital city of Tirana, and covers the core of the historically productive Mirdita VMS base metal district. It represents an opportunity to explore Copper, Zinc, Gold and Silver zones that were previously partially mined, explored or evaluated at lower metal prices, and provides an opportunity to apply modern exploration techniques toward the discovery of new VMS deposits and extensions of known zones.

Tirex has identified numerous high priority exploration targets resulting from the 2007 airborne geophysical survey in addition to the historical deposits identified by previous state-run exploration, The Mirdita exploration project is managed by an experienced team of Canadian geologists and other professionals, and several senior Albanian geologists, geophysicists and surveyors. Tirex owns a 90% interest in Mirdita.

The significance of the project on the Albanian economy was emphasized in October this year when the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development elected to invest €6 Million in Tirex through the provision of a convertible loan on very favourable terms at a time when no mining project financing was occurring anywhere else in the world.

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Base Metals and Precious Metals

Of immense significance to Tirex, its shareholders, and the Albanian people, is the emerging reality that as exploration progresses, unexpectedly higher grades of precious metals mineralization is being encountered.

Not looking at the base metal grades on the project, the Gold and Silver results from two separate deposits have been excellent and include:

• Drill Hole MR 08-01: 65m of 2.7 g/t Gold
• Drill Hole MR 08-02: 60.4m of 1.6 g/t Gold
• Drill Hole MR 08-16: 3.65m of 2.9 g/t Gold
• Drill Hole MR 08-25: 7.1m of 3.4 g/t Gold

While the base metals values continue to remain predictably high in view of the VMS nature of the deposits, both gold and silver are turning up in drill results that cast the project in a whole new light. Especially since base metals prices are expected to remain soft in the near term. With increasing precious metals values, the economics of the project have the potential to becoming very compelling even if base metals prices remain weak.

The company recently completed at $9M financing with a $20B financial partner (EBRD), are well funded and continue to drill aggressively. Further drill results are expected in the New Year.

Albania Welcoming the Lift
While Albania does have a history rich in mineral production, the last 3 decades have witnessed a decline in the fortunes of the industry in its entirety.

Albania's high-grade chromite reserves had been largely exhausted by the 1990. The poor quality of the remaining ore accounted for the country's worsening position in world markets. Impurities present in Albania's highest-grade chrome were largely the by-product of poor mining and smelting techniques and the use of antiquated Chinese equipment. The country's chromium industry also suffered because of inadequate transportation facilities.

Albania also produced copper, iron, and nickel. Most of the main copper deposits in the country were close to where Tirex is now exploring. The Albanian Geological Survey has estimated that about 20 million tonnes of copper mineralization of unspecified grade was been mined in Albania, with over half produced from the Mirdita District. During the 1980s, although the quality of copper mining methods was generally low, copper was the most successful industry in Albania's mineral- extraction sector. Copper production rose from about 11,500 metric tons in 1980 to 17,000 metric tons in 1988 before grinding to a halt due to political reasons and not lack of metal. The government aimed to export copper in a processed form and built smelters at Rubik, Kukës, and Laç. The industry's product mix included blister copper, copper wire, copper sulfate, and alloys. Albania's principal iron ore deposits, estimated at 20 million tons in the 1930s, were located near Pogradec, Kukës, Shkodër, and Peshkopi. The Elbasan Steel Combine was Albania's largest industrial complex. In operation since 1966, the steelworks had obsolete Chinese equipment. Annual nickel output ranged from 7,200 to 9,000 tons in the 1980s.

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Albanian bitumen and asphalt deposits were located near the town of Selenicë and in the Vjosë River valley. Bitumen and asphalt production rose significantly after World War II, and most of the output was used for paving and waterproofing materials and in the manufacturing of insulators and roofing shingles. Miners had worked the Selenicë deposits continuously for centuries before a lack of soap, boots, and basic equipment forced operations to cease when the centrally planned economy stalled. Geologists estimated that the Selenicë deposits would not be exhausted until several decades into the twenty-first century at normal production rates.

Albania also possessed abundant deposits of salt, found near Kavajë and Vlorë. Limestone, a principal raw material for Albania's construction industry, was quarried throughout the country.

Tirex continues to explore the many targets in Albania, even as the rest of the world lurches into a prolonged recession. Projects such as Mirdita whose development is a matter of national interest, and not just economics, will proceed to the production stage much faster than those which are of limited public interest. For investors in Tirex, that provides a premium cap on risk that money just can’t buy.


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