The year is 1959 in the northeast of Albania. In the hills outside of a small town named Kukes, a subsistence farmer is drilling a water-well for his commune.  During drilling, he encounters what he knows to be ore-bearing rock, mere meters below surface. He travels the distance to the Albanian Geological Survey (AGS) in the town across the valley to inform his comrades.

A year later the Gjegjan Copper mine is an open-pit mining operation.

Today, Albania is a very different place.

The xenophobic communist regimes of a not to distant past have been replaced by the pro-business, parliamentary democracy of today and precarious alliances with the USSR and China, replaced with NATO membership and EU candidacy.

Albania has opened its doors to the business world with a particular view to attract foreign direct investment in the mineral sector and to develop its fantastic natural resources.  To this end, in 1994 Albania passed a progressive mining law and in 2008 set corporate taxes to just 10%, among the lowest in the world.

The Gjegjan volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit was estimated to contain 4.4Mt of ore at an average grade 3.3% copper (AGS) and was mined by open pit and underground methods from 1961 to 1993.    The historical  (and of course non NI 43-101 compliant) deposit mined by the Albanians is reported to have been Albania’s largest copper deposit hosted within a distinct volcano-sedimentary sequence exposed in the northeast and northwest parts of Albania.

What a potentially amazing opportunity for Volcanic Metals Corporation, which holds a 100% interest in a 200km² Exploration License that covers a 65 kilometre stretch of the prospective volcano-sedimentary sequence in northeastern Albania.  Outside the immediate surroundings of the Gjegjan deposit, the Albanian Geological Survey (AGS) conducted no systematic or sustained exploration for additional VMS deposits over the southwestern extent of the prospective volcano-sedimentary sequence.  Despite the limited amount of past work, several copper-zinc-gold bearing sulfide occurrences were discovered in the south-central portion of the Exploration License by the AGS.

Geotech Airborne Ltd. has been contracted by Volcanic Metals to conduct a combined high-resolution helicopter-borne magnetic and electromagnetic (EM) geophysical survey for approximately 1,248 line-kilometres in two survey grids.  Line spacing will be 125m on the North grid  (Gjegjan deposit survey area), and 200m spacing on the South grid.  Geotech will be utilizing their Versatile Time Domain Electro Magnetic System (“VTEM”) in order to identify massive sulfide concentrations.  The Geotech VTEM system provides the latest in deep penetrating EM geophysical surveying technology in and exhibits significant advantages over other commercially available systems.

As of February 1, 2010 Volcanic reports:

Initial ground induced polarization (IP) geophysical surveying over an area conducted two kilometers to the northeast of the Gjegjan Mine identified several chargeability anomalies interpreted to trace sulfide bearing horizons. The geophysical anomalies represent targets of immediate interest and additional ground geophysical surveying and drill testing is planned.

Volcanic is trading on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol VOL.