Tirex Adds Promise At Mirdita

VANCOUVER — Tirex Resources (TXX-V, TIRXF-O) is slowly proving the precious and base metal potential of its Mirdita project in central Albania. Lately, the proof has come from the Letitna zone, where drills are encountering healthy mineralization over good widths.

The first hole into Letitna, hole 37, was drilled in 2008 and returned 61.5 metres grading 0.57% copper, 1.56% zinc, 10.6 grams silver per tonne, and 0.7 gram gold starting 134 metres down-hole. The intercept included 2 metres of 0.24% copper, 4.38% zinc, 6.4 grams silver and 6 grams gold, as well as 11.2 metres of 0.32% copper, 2.87% zinc, 19.9 grams silver and 1.1 grams gold.

Tirex started drilling at Letitna again in late April and the second hole, hole 38, also hit a promising mineralized intercept: 35.1 metres averaging 1.25% copper, 0.42% zinc, 4.9 grams silver and 0.9 gram gold. Hole 38 was collared 40 metres downdip of the first hole and mineralization started 148 metres below surface.

Stepping 25 metres to the south, hole 39 cut a shorter intercept, hitting 4.8 metres of 2.49% copper, 0.06% zinc, 1.8 grams silver and 0.6 gram gold from 112 metres down-hole. At 178 metres depth, the drill hit another zone of mineralization, returning 6.2 metres of 0.18% copper, 6.34% zinc, 17.4 grams silver and 1.4 grams gold.

And, from 25 metres north of hole 38, hole 40 recently returned a 46- metre intercept grading 0.7% copper, 2.68% zinc, 20.8 grams silver and 1.6 grams gold, starting 144 metres down-hole. The hole also returned a 2.1-metre intercept from 126 metres depth grading 0.11% copper, 7.27% zinc, 16 grams silver and 1.2 grams gold.

Letitna became a Tirex target when the area returned an extensive electromagnetic anomaly from an airborne survey, the first geophysical survey ever conducted in Albania. The zone is at the south end of the north-striking trend near the centre of Tirex’s 344-sq.-km land package that hosts its primary targets. The Gurthi targets, known as Central and South No. 2, are just over 1 km to the north, while Koshaj is 3.5 km northwest along the trend.

Tirex will continue to advance Letitna, Koshaj, and the Gurthi zones this year — all three will see considerable drilling. Letitna alone will see seven holes. But, with a land package as large and underexplored as Mirdita, Tirex also has many untested anomalies to explore.

One of those is Munelle South, an area 2 km northeast of Koshaj, where a thick melange rock unit masks the underlying volcanic host rock. Koshaj, a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit, actually occurs along the edge of this melange unit; Tirex will drill a series of holes to probe for VMS mineralization underneath the mask.

Tirex has also allocated drill time to Shebe North, which sits 15 km south of Letitna. In 2008, the company punched two holes into Shebe North; one intersected a pyrite-silica alteration zone with low metal grades and the second returned two short mineralized intercepts.

And the company will advance geophysical grid surveys along the Eastern Slope trend in advance of drilling later in the year. Eastern Slope is a 5-km-long VMS trend identified through airborne geophysics and preliminary groundwork. The trend appears similar to the Koshaj-Gurthi-Letitna trend, which runs parallel, 4 km to the west. The trend has not been explored.

Tirex is well funded to complete its exploration plans. In March, the company accepted a $750,000 investment from Energold Drilling (EGD-V, EGDFF-O), the Vancouverbased drilling company that has acted as primary drill contractor for Tirex. Moreover, Tirex just drew down a $1.6-million loan from one of its partners: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD, which was established in 1991 and is jointly owned by more than 60 member countries, is mandated to nurture private-sector business in emerging economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Tirex’s shares lost 2¢ on the latest drill results to close at 83¢ apiece. The company has a 52-week trading range of 21.5¢-$1.70 and 39 million shares outstanding.