Empire Mining Corporation has acquired exclusive exploration and development rights to four exploration licenses, totaling 64.5 km², within the historically productive, chromite-bearing Bulqiza Ultramafic Massif, Albania. The Bulqiza chromite deposits are noted for exceptional strike and dip extension and are among the largest folded stratiform occurrences in the world with the famous Bulqiza-Batra mine containing production plus reserves of about 18 million tonnes. The ores are characterized by exceptionally high grade (+40% Cr2O3) and metallurgical quality (CrFe ratios of 3:1) and command premium prices in global markets.

The Bulqiza Massif and chromite mining district are located in northeast Albania approximately 40 km from the capital and commercial center of Tirana. The Empire project areas are accessible by paved highway to Bulqiza town and by a network of mine access roads throughout the district.

The Albanian chromite ores were discovered in 1942 and the famous Bulqiza mine developed in 1948. During the communist era the chromite industry in Albania, operated through the state company Albkrom and largely centered on Bulqiza, became a major export business and the third largest producer of chromite in the world reaching 1.2 million tonnes annually in the late 1980's. Following the collapse of communism in 1989 the industry rapidly declined, becoming effectively dormant in the commodity recession years of 1997-2002, before a period of modest recovery with improving chromite prices since 2003. Production in 2007 was 285,000 tonnes with roughly half from the privatized Bulqiza mine (now operated on a modest scale by the Russian-Austrian group DARFO) with the balance from small scale surface and underground pillar-robbing operations by local miners.

The Bulqiza Massif is the most productive of 17 chromite-bearing ultramafic bodies in eastern Albania and has produced approximately 20 million tonnes of high grade chromite ores during the past 50 years. The massif is composed of lower and upper layers of harzburgite, differentiated by increasing dunite facies and chromite lodes in the upper sequence, and overlying cumulate made up of dunite, pyroxenite and gabbro. The massif can be described as a northwest-oriented ovoid mass, some 4-6 km thick and covering a surface area of 370 km², with a variable westward dip. Various workers have characterized the massif as an "eastward overturned anticline" or "west-dipping monoclinal structure".

The Bulqiza Massif contains some 65 chromite deposits on which mining or significant development work has been undertaken and over 370 occurrences or showings. The principal mineralization occurs in the famous Bulqiza-Batra ore structure which has been developed and mined semi-continuously for a strike length of 5 km and through a vertical range of 900 meters in the Bulqiza mine and 450 meters in the Batra sector. The Bulqiza-Batra chromite ores consist of tabular-concordant layers of banded, semi-massive to massive mineralization within serpentinized dunite alteration envelopes containing disseminated mineralization. Ore thickness averages about 3 meters but is commonly thickened by folding. Grades typically exceed 40% Cr2O3. Sub-concordant, pipe-like and podiform styles of mineralization, comprising deposits ranging in size from several hundred thousand to several million tonnes, occur throughout the Massif.

Empire's exploration licenses cover the majority of the principal mineralized and most prospective parts of the Bulqiza Massif. The exploration licenses comprise four distinct project areas, with multiple resource development or exploration targets, within the Massif.

The Bulqiza-Batra License (38.8 km²) covers direct extensions of the Bulqiza-Batra chromite ore structure and a number of important subsidiary deposits including the Thekna, Lugu Gjat-10 Korriku, and Ternova mines. Principal targets include untested extensions of the west and east limbs of the folded Batra ore structure, and strike and dip extensions of the Thekna podiform deposits, all of which have potential for several million tonnes of chromite ore. Existing, state-reported resources within the license area (not confirmed to NI 43-101 standards) total over 4 million tonnes of which Empire is believed to control about half.

The Bulqiza Veriore License (6.9 km²) contains the projected extension of the Bulqiza mine ore structure, as well as wide zones of disseminated mineralization in outcrop potentially amenable to surface mining, north of the Val Kali Valley. Depth to the prospective Bulqiza horizon is undetermined; however, the target is repetition of the world-class Bulqiza orebody with potential for +10 million tonnes.

The Qafe Burreli License (6.1 km²) contains multiple, partially explored chromite deposits near the former Shkalla Mine in northwest Bulqiza. The deposits in this area are characterized by high grades and long plunge lengths (1.2 km at Shkalla) with potential for both modest-scale but high grade surface mineable deposits and more extensive deeper ores amenable to underground development.

The Liqeni i Dhive License (12.7 km²) covers the partially developed Liqeni i Dhive, Maja e Hurdhes and Liqeni i Dervishit mines, with collective, state reported resources of 152,000 tonnes @ 45% Cr2O3, and a number of less developed satellite deposits. The potential on the Liqeni i Dhive License is for near term development of high grade, surface mineable deposits as well as extensive "Shkalla-type" ores at greater depths.

Empire's 2009 planned program includes compilation and digitization of the extensive geological database developed by the state company Albkrom during the period of active mine development from the 1950's-1980's, field evaluation of priority targets, underground rehabilitation, and surface and underground drilling. The objective of the 2009 program is to confirm to western standards, the ±2 million tonne resource estimate of the state in the Bulqiza-Batra License area and to further defining priority targets within Empire's other licenses.

 

Albania is located in the southeastern Balkan region of Europe.

Albania reacted slowly to the events of 1989 that culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall and did not fully rid itself of its communist government until the election of 1991. Today it's a parliamentary democracy which is converting its economy into a western oriented free-market system. Albania is a strong ally of Western Europe and the United States and the majority of Albanians support integration into NATO and the European Union as a primary goal of government.

A progressive investment climate is attracting much new foreign investment across many industry sectors. The regulatory environment has been streamlined and corporate taxes have been lowered and are among the lowest in the world. A new mining law was passed in 1994 and subsequently improved with a number of amendments in 2004, including the liberalization of the licensing process. In addition, a new bill was passed which allows for the flow of technology, machinery and equipment into the country free of any customs duties.

A favourable geological setting bestowed Albania with a wealth of minerals. The country's mining history dates back more than 2,000 years and includes historical production of chromite, copper, zinc, nickel and iron, primarily from the country's northern mountains.

From 1946 to 1989 Albania was virtually cut off from the rest of the world by an ultra-Stalinist regime but despite the inefficiencies of the country's communist dictatorship which made its mines technologically backward and costly to run, from the 1960's to the late 1980's it was an important copper producer and the third largest producer of chromite behind South Africa and Kazakhstan; and, the second largest exporter of chromite, with peak production estimated at over 200,000 tonnes per year in the late 1980's.

After the fall of the communist regime and the self imposed economic isolation, Albania's overall economic collapse, critical shortage of cash along with escalating extraction costs, and antiquated machinery and infrastructure caused a significant decline in the chromite mining industry in the years to follow while copper and nickel production ceased in 2000 before resuming in 2004.

Today, robust commodity prices and the recovering Albanian economy have led to an increase in mineral exploration and mining activities in several regions of Albania. Both chromium and copper production have increased steadily since 2004, and several foreign companies have begun to explore for and develop Albania's abundant mineral wealth utilizing modern geophysical and geochemical technologies. An interesting development for the Albanian mining industry has become the increasing interest of the Chinese, particularly in chromite and iron-nickel mines.

Link:
- Albania (CIA World Factbook)