Tirex Offers 5 Oz. Gold For New Slogan

Before Tirex Resources (TXX-V, TIRXF-o), came along, gold and silver values were largely unknown in the Mirdita mining district of Albania because the state-run exploration company in charge never assayed for silver and considered gold content a state secret.

But now Tirex is eager to get the word out that its huge land package of volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) districts in the north-central part of the country is full of precious metals, too.

The Vancouver-based junior is offering an award of 5 oz. gold to anyone who can come up with a new slogan for Mirdita that reflects its significant gold and silver values. The deadline: Dec. 15.

“We felt it is important to reposition ourselves in the marketplace to reflect our upside of gold and silver on top of the base metals,” said Arlen Hansen, president of Kin Communications, which represents Tirex.

The first drill results have started to trickle in from Tirex’s 344-sq.-km project, 70 km north of the capital city of Tirana. The first hole, reported on Oct. 23, intersected a 13.9- metre section grading 3.5% copper and 1.3 gram per tonne gold, including 3.7 metres grading 10.6% copper and 2.9 grams gold and 1.1 metres grading 13.6% copper and 7.4 grams gold.

A second hole cut 0.75 metre of 1.1% copper, and 1.25 metres of 4 grams gold further down the hole.

And exploratory holes drilled to test the extent of mineralization in a historical drill hole reported equally significant results. The best intersection returned 0.45 metre grading 2.75% copper, 1.27% zinc, 25.7 grams silver and 1.3 grams gold.

The potential of the Mirdita project is winning some converts. Despite the financial crisis, Tirex successfully arranged a loan of 6 million euros ($9.5 million) from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in October. The bank is owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental organizations and invests mainly in private enterprises in Eastern Europe and central Asia.

At presstime, Tirex was trading at about 25 per share. Over the last 52 weeks, it has traded in a range of 23.5-$4.17 per share.

The company has 31.3 million shares outstanding.