Ariana Resources plc : Excellent drilling results at Salinbas and Ardala, Turkey

  Ariana Resources plc : Excellent drilling results at Salinbas and Ardala,
                                    Turkey

18 February 2013
AIM: AAU

              EXCELLENT DRILLING RESULTS AT SALINBAS AND ARDALA

Ariana Resources plc  ("Ariana" or  "the Company"), the  gold exploration  and 
development company focused on Turkey, is  pleased to announce the results  of 
its winter drilling  programme at  Salinbas and  Ardala ("Salinbas/Ardala"  or 
"the Project"), which is contained within its Joint Venture with Eldorado Gold
Corporation ("Eldorado") in north-eastern Turkey.

Highlights:

  * New drilling  has  identified  additional mineralisation  on  the  eastern 
    margins of  Salinbas  within a  corridor  trending away  from  the  Ardala 
    Au-Cu-Mo porphyry.  

  * Best intercepts  from  drilling in  the  Salinbas area  include  31.10m  @ 
    1.38g/t Au,  17.90m  @  2.09  g/t  Au and  9.20m  @  2.25  g/t  Au.   Many 
    mineralised intercepts were obtained from less than 100m below surface.   

  * Best intercepts from drilling in the Ardala area include 81.5m @ 1.28  g/t 
    Au + 10.5 g/t Ag, 34.5m @ 2.21 g/t  Au + 10.7 g/t Ag and 18.2m @ 2.20  g/t 
    Au + 25.6 g/t Ag.  This area also shows an increase in base-metal  content 
    towards the Ardala porphyry. 

  * In-fill drilling within the  Salinbas area will  allow for refinements  to 
    the geological model and  will enable the Company  to calculate a  mineral 
    resource estimate.  

  * Development of the Project is being  conducted in a JV funded  exclusively 
    by Eldorado  - US$1.77  million  committed by  Eldorado in  the  2012-2013 
    period. 

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

 

"These latest results from the Salinbas and Ardala prospects further highlight
the potential  of this  underexplored region  of  Turkey -  an area  where  we 
continue to  utilise  our  exploration expertise  and  regional  knowledge  to 
identify new potentially multi-million ounce deposits.

 

"The results reinforce our  understanding of the  geological potential of  the 
area and  suggest that  the Salinbas  Au-Ag system  is related  to the  Ardala 
porphyry Au-Cu-Mo system,  with gold  and silver  grades generally  increasing 
towards Salinbas and base-metal grades increasing towards Ardala.  The  latest 
drilling in the area  between Salinbas and Ardala  indicate the continuity  of 
mineralisation occurring within  a 1.5km  long zone which  trends towards  the 
porphyry, suggesting a genetic  link and representing  an area of  significant 
future resource  upside.  This  concept will  be further  investigated  during 
drilling in 2013 as we remain focused on compiling an initial mineral resource
estimate for the Project and continue to advance it up the value curve"  

Drilling Programme

 

The 2012  Salinbas/Ardala  programme  was  designed  to  achieve  two  primary 
objectives.

The first objective was to  complete in-fill drilling, where possible,  within 
the current extents of previous drilling,  so that the geological model  could 
be refined and an initial resource  estimate could be established.  This  part 
of the  programme was  completed  by a  drill-rig  (Sandvik DE130)  owned  and 
operated by the Company.   Fifteen holes were drilled  in this area  totalling 
1338.2 metres, and were drilled  to depths of between  50 and 106 metres,  all 
angled vertically.  Collar spacing between new and old holes in this area  was 
narrowed where possible to approximately  25 metres apart.  Previous  drilling 
results from this area included 9.5m @ 6.48 g/t Au + 39.4 g/t Ag, 11.3m @ 4.98
g/t Au + 42.8 g/t Ag and 25m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 7.9 g/t Ag.

The secondary objective for the programme was to conduct exploration  drilling 
between Salinbas and the Ardala porphyry  to the southeast.  Two angled  holes 
were drilled in this region, totalling 405 metres.  Highly encouraging results
from these holes have confirmed the need for further exploration in this  zone 
and suggest the continuity of mineralisation  from the Ardala porphyry in  the 
valley floor to  the Salinbas system  on the ridge  - representing a  vertical 
distance of 675m and a horizontal distance of close to 2km.  Linking these two
areas will be an  important objective for  future drilling programmes,  though 
the current drilling  has confirmed  the presence of  mineralisation near  the 
mid-point between Salinbas and Ardala.  

This drilling progamme commenced in October 2012 and continued until  December 
2012 for a total of 1,743.2 metres.  This was less than planned partly due  to 
the difficulty of drilling conditions encountered in the area between Salinbas
and Ardala and also due to  snowfall, which initially hampered and  eventually 
halted operations for  the season.  It  is expected that  the remaining  drill 
holes within the total programme of 4,000 metres will be completed from  April 
2013 onwards.  The emphasis  of this drilling will  be to further explore  the 
corridor of mineralisation between Salinbas and Ardala.

Table 1: New drilling results for the Salinbas prospect (SALH numbered  holes) 
and Ardala (ARD numbered holes).  Results reported for intercepts >0.1g/t  Au, 
a 2  metre minimum  interval  width and  up to  10  metres of  waste  material 
allowed. SALH068  showed  low  recovery (53%)  but  ended  in  mineralisation. 
 ARD009 also showed low recovery (68%) and  did not reach the target depth.  * 
Ardala hole intercepts include Cu in the range of 0.12-0.60%, Pb in the  range 
0.20-1.05% and Zn in the range 0.31-0.90%.  

 

Drillhole ID From (m) To (m) Intercept (m) Grade Au (g/t) Grade Ag (g/t)
  SALH060     23.00   41.00      18.00          0.45           2.1
  SALH061     39.00   57.00      18.00          0.20           0.5
  SALH062     16.90   48.00      31.10          1.38           2.6
 including    20.80   38.70      17.90          2.09           3.9
  SALH063     18.50   46.90      28.40          0.42           4.4
 including      29     40.5      11.50          0.69           6.4
  SALH064     51.00   56.00      5.00           0.50           3.8
              96.00   100.00     4.00           0.48           4.4
  SALH065     66.90   90.00      23.10          0.40           1.5
 including    71.00   78.80      7.80           0.93           2.7
  SALH066     52.50   66.00      13.50          0.27           1.8
  SALH067     79.00   87.00      8.00           0.31           16.4
  SALH068     96.80   106.00     9.20           2.26           17.2
  SALH069     25.20   35.00      9.80           0.18           1.1
  SALH070     59.00   64.00      5.00           0.21           4.0
  SALH071     58.00   92.80      34.80          0.35           8.1
 including    58.00   66.00      8.00           1.01           13.2
              83.30   87.00      3.70           0.52           24.3
  SALH072      5.50   10.00      4.50           0.47           1.1
  SALH073A     0.00   31.00      31.00          0.21           1.6
 including     0.00   11.00      11.00          0.38           3.9
  SALH074B     0.00    4.00      4.00           2.05           5.9
              40.80   71.00      30.20          0.32           9.3
  ARD008A*    114.00  195.50     81.5           1.28           10.5
 including    122.00  134.50     12.5           1.66           19.2
              156.50  191.00     34.5           2.21           10.7
  ARD009*     136.80   155       18.2           2.20           25.6

 

Figure 1: Plan of the Salinbas/Ardala zone of mineralisation based on drilling
completed to date.  The boundaries of the zone of mineralisation are based  in 
part on the current geological model and also from results of drilling in  the 
corridor between Salinbas and Ardala.

Sampling and Assaying Procedures

NQ size drill-core samples from the drilling programme on Salinbas and  mainly 
HQ size drill-core samples from Ardala were  cut in half by a diamond saw  and 
sent for assay.  Sample recovery averaged 78% in the mineralised zones (with a
high of 95% and a  low of 36%) due to  weak ground conditions coinciding  with 
many of these zones.  Approximately half of the intercepts provided recoveries
in excess  of  85%  and  are considered  acceptable  for  resource  estimation 
purposes.  

All the samples have been prepared and analysed at the ALS Chemex  preparation 
facility  in  Izmir  via  30g  fire  assay  and  for  trace-element  analysis. 
 Standard, blank and duplicate  samples have been used  in the sample  batches 
and quality control checks have determined that these have passed.  Laboratory
sample preparation, assaying procedures and chain of custody are appropriately
controlled.  The  Company maintains  an archive  of half  core samples  and  a 
photographic record of all cores for future reference.

Contacts:

 

Ariana Resources plc                Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616
Michael Spriggs, Chairman
Kerim Sener, Managing Director
Beaumont Cornish Limited            Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt
S.P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP    Tel: +44 (0) 20 3463 2260
Ewan Leggat / Laura Littley
St Brides Media & Finance Ltd       Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236 1177
Susie Geliher / Lottie Brocklehurst

Editors' note:

Dr Kerim  Sener, BSc  (Hons), MSc,  PhD, is  the Managing  Director of  Ariana 
Resources plc.  A  graduate of the  University of Southampton  in Geology,  he 
also holds a Master's degree from the Royal School of Mines (Imperial College,
London) in Mineral Exploration and a doctorate from the University of  Western 
Australia.  He is a Fellow of The Geological Society of London and has  worked 
in geological research  and mineral  consultancy in  Eastern Europe,  Southern 
Africa and Australia.  He  has read and approved  the technical disclosure  in 
this regulatory announcement.  

About Ariana Resources:

Ariana is  an  exploration  and  development  company  focused  on  epithermal 
gold-silver and  porphyry  copper-gold deposits  in  Turkey.  The  Company  is 
developing a portfolio of  prospective licences selected on  the basis of  its 
in-house geological and remote-sensing database, on its own in western  Turkey 
and in Joint Venture with  Eldorado Gold Corporation in north-eastern  Turkey. 
 Eldorado owns 51% of this joint venture and is fully funding all  exploration 
work on the JV properties, while Ariana owns 49% and is the operator.

The Company's flagship assets are its Sindirgi and Tavsan gold projects  which 
form the Red Rabbit Gold Project.  Both contain a series of prospects,  within 
two prolific  mineralised  districts in  the  Western Anatolian  Volcanic  and 
Extensional (WAVE)  Province  in  western Turkey.   This  Province  hosts  the 
largest operating gold mines in Turkey and remains highly prospective for  new 
porphyry and epithermal deposits.  These core projects, which are separated by
a distance of 75km, are presently  being assessed as to their economic  merits 
and now form part of a Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co.  The  total 
resource inventory of the Company stands at 448,000 ounces of gold equivalent.
 

Ariana  also  has   a  strategic  investment   in  Tigris  Resources   Limited 
(www.tigrisresources.com), a private  Jersey-based exploration company,  which 
is focused on  the exploration  of copper  and gold  deposits in  southeastern 
Turkey.  Ariana retains 11.5% of Tigris Resources Limited.  

S.P. Angel  Corporate Finance  LLP are  brokers to  the Company  and  Beaumont 
Cornish Limited is the Company's Nominated Adviser.

For further  information on  Ariana you  are invited  to visit  the  Company's 
website at www.arianaresources.com.

Ends

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