The area was responsible for the bulk of Albania’s chromite output when the country was the third largest producer in the world before the collapse of the communist regime.
TIRANA, March 8 – The Empire Mining Corporation will soon start drilling at its Bulqiza chromite project in Albania, the Canadian company said in a press release.
“Road clearance was slated to begin on March 8 and a drilling program to be carried out with two separate drill rigs, consisting of up to 13 surface diamond core holes, ranging in depth from 50 to 200 meters and totaling approximately 1,400 meters, is expected to commence during the week of March 22, 2010,” the company said.
Drilling will focus on the northern and southern shallow portions of the eastern limb of the Bulqiza-Batra area and at the Thekna deposit, in two areas approximately 2 km apart.
The Bulqiza-Batra area hosts the historically productive Bulqiza and Batra Mines which were responsible for the bulk of Albania’s chromite output when it was the third largest producer in the world before the collapse of the communist regime in 1990.
The Bulqiza-Batra area is characterized by high grades and metallurgical quality.
Empire’s Bulqiza licence surrounds and extends from the producing Bulqiza and Batra Mines and includes the eastern and western extensions of the Bulqiza-Batra area.
The current planned drilling program is intended as a precursor to a more intensive drilling and development campaign aimed at obtaining resources and establishing sites for future mining of the deposits.
