First hole shows Albanian promise for Tirex

Vancouver – The first drill result out of Tirex Resources‘ (TXX-V) Mirdita project indicates the company’s decision to delve into underexplored Albanian geology may have been a good one.

Hole 1 returned mineralization over 65 metres from 38 metres depth, with average grades of 0.6% copper, 9% zinc, 0.3% lead, 48.4 grams silver per tonne, and 2.7 grams silver per tonne. The intercept included 14.1 metres grading 0.9% copper, 11.6% zinc, 1% lead, 141.6 grams silver, and 5.5 grams gold from 53 metres depth followed by 3.1 metres of 2.3% copper, 34.8% zinc, 2.4% lead, 376.1 grams silver, and 14.6 grams gold from 64 metres downhole.

Of interest, the system demonstrated the ability to generate very high grade zinc one 0.8-metre segment returned 53.8% zinc as well as significant gold values.

Tirex acquired the Mirdita project in 2007. The district-scale project, which covers 344 sq. km, lies some 70 km northeast of Albania’s capital city, Tirana, and 85 km northeast of the port city of Durres on the Adriatic Sea.

A recent 43-101 technical report on Mirdita points out that Albania was significantly isolated for the past 40 years. As a result, Albanian geologists were shut out of advancements in the understanding of volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits. In addition, government decisions meant exploration focused exclusively on copper.

One of TIrex’s first moves in the eastern European country was to fly an airborne electromagnetic survey of the Mirdita property, marking the first large, modern geophysical survey ever conducted in Albania. The survey identified several strong EM responses that Tirex plans to investigate as VMS targets.

The drill hole reported above is the beginning of a large drill program at Mirdita. Hole 1 was punched into an area called Koshaj, one of 17 known deposits on the property that there partially drilled and defined by the Albanian State Mining Company. The state identified Koshaj as a zinc-rich deposit not mined at the time because of a lack of zinc processing facilities.

Historic holes at Koshaj were drilled vertically. As such, Tirex drilled hole 1 vertically to verify historic data. Two more vertical holes are currently underway, after which the company plans to continue with angled holes throughout the Mirdita district, targeting both known despoits and new geophysical anomalies.

Tirex debuted on the Toronto Venture Exchange in mid-October at $1.15 and had since seen its share price range up to $3.66. After releasing news of the first Mirdita hole Tirex gained as much as 50 before closing up 4 at a new high of $3.70. The company has 34.9 million shares issued.