18 January 2016
AIM: AAU
ARIANA RESOURCES
EXCELLENT RESULTS FROM KIZILCUKUR DRILLING
Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company operating in Turkey, is pleased to announce the results of its drilling programme, completed during November, at the Kizilcukur Project, which is located approximately 22km to the northeast of its Kiziltepe Mine. Kizilcukur is located outside of the Red Rabbit joint venture with Proccea Construction Co. and is 100% owned by Ariana.
Highlights:
· 1,598 meters of new Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling identifies high-grade and near surface zones of mineralisation within the Kizilcukur vein system; all intercepts hit mineralisation within less than 60m from surface.
· Best infill intercepts include, 8m @ 7.6g/t Gold + 194g/t Silver, 5m @ 3.5g/t Gold + 263g/t Silver and 11m @ 1.3g/t Gold + 73g/t Silver.
· 76 meters of rock-saw channel sampling also completed, with best results of 2.0m @ 10.5g/t Gold + 455g/t Silver, 2.7m @ 4.4g/t Gold + 229g/t and 2.5m @ 3.1g/t Gold + 177g/t Silver.
· New drilling data permits refinements to the geological model and will enable a revision of the JORC resource for Kizilcukur in order to assess its potential as a satellite operation to the Kiziltepe Mine.
Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:
"We are very pleased with the results of the drilling programme, which demonstrate the potential of the Kizilcukur Project to contain a resource that may become a higher-grade satellite operation to the Kiziltepe Mine, which is in construction. The results have confirmed previous work and show that the highest gold and silver grades are encountered within 30m of surface, which is particularly encouraging when considering that open-pit mining is also envisaged at this location. Future drilling will need to concentrate on a specific level within the vein system to demonstrate the full strike potential of this resource area. We expect to continue to improve the resource at this project through further drilling and, in addition, look forward to updating the market with further drilling results, including those from the Kiziltepe Mine."
Drilling Programme
The 2015 RC drilling programme at Kizilcukur was designed to improve confidence in the current JORC Inferred resource (162,000 tonnes @ 2.39 g/t gold and 48.5 g/t silver). This Inferred resource, established in 2013 from 17 historic diamond drill holes completed in 2007 and 2008, consists primarily of two vein systems. Surface sampling and vein mapping completed more recently identified significant potential further along strike of the areas drilled in the past.
From late October through to early November 2015, the Ariana team completed 1,598m of RC drilling with the addition of 26 new holes (Table 1 and Figure 1). The average drilling depth for the programme was 60m, intercepting the Kizilcukur vein with an average vein thickness of three metres. Collar spacing between the new and historic holes has been narrowed to 25m in several places. Testing for continuation of the mineralisation further along strike was undertaken on approximately 50m spaced centres. Drilling of known mineralisation has demonstrated some continuity of the Kizilcukur main vein, with an offset in two locations caused by north-south faulting which has been intruded by a quartz-feldspar porphyry.
In addition to the drilling campaign, the Ariana team also completed a 75.7m rock-saw channel-sampling programme (Table 2). The work comprised the cutting of 26 channels, which tested 700m of strike (35%) of the total 2km of mapped veins in the area. Channel spacing was approximately 25m, with each channel positioned to correspond to an existing, or planned drill hole. The channels primarily tested outcropping manganese-rich quartz veins, but also aimed to test the peripheries of historic workings where quartz vein was absent.
The latest drilling confirms the presence of a highly mineralised zone over a strike length of up to 200m, with moderate width (approx. 4m), down to about 30m vertical depth (Figure 2). There appears to be a depth control on high-grade gold and silver; lead and zinc increase at depth, with a corresponding decrease in gold and silver. Supergene processes may have resulted in gold and silver enrichment at surface down to the base of complete oxidation. The base of the high-grade zone appears to be approximately 30m below surface, with some variability, and additional near surface drilling is still required to fully test the strike length of this high-grade zone.
Deeper historic drilling had also identified zones of elevated molybdenum with base metals. Future exploration will identify the relationships between the shallow level high-grade gold and silver zones, the deeper level molybdenum-base metal zones and the quartz-feldspar porphyry intrusions. There is evidence to suggest that the Kizilcukur vein system is developed in the periphery of a mineralised porphyry body located at depth.
Details of the Kizilcukur Project
The Kizilcukur Project consists of one licence located in the Balikesir Province in Western Turkey (coordinates: 626150 m E; 4360440 m N). The property lies 22km to the northeast (straight line) and 50km by road from the Kiziltepe Sector of the Company's Red Rabbit Project. A royalty will be payable to Dogu Akdeniz Mineralleri San. ve Tic. Ltd. of 2% Net Smelter Return on commercial production from the Project. Ariana has the option to sell the project to Zenit Madencilik San. ve Tic. A.S. (the operating company for the Kiziltepe Mine) at three times the exploration cost.
The Project covers an area containing a series of sub-parallel quartz veins hosted by ophiolitic units that trend northwest and extend for at least two kilometres. The main vein exhibits classic low-sulphidation epithermal features and attains a maximum true width of 8m. The western quartz vein extends over a strike length of 800m. Composite rock chip sampling of 80m strike along this quartz vein returned encouraging assay results of 6m at 3.3 g/t gold, 2m at 9.6g/t gold and 1m at 7.2 g/t gold. The peak rock-chip assay result in this area was 152 g/t gold and 1,320 g/t silver.
A JORC Inferred resource of 162,000 tonnes @ 2.39 g/t gold and 48.5 g/t silver has already been established at Kizilcukur based on 17 historic drill holes, as announced by the Company on 29 October 2013. The current drilling programme was designed to test the near-surface resource potential along strike of the areas previously tested by drilling. To date 700m of this has been drill tested. In the future further drilling will be required to test the full strike length of the vein system and to adequately follow-up other related geochemical targets generated from exploration work completed during 2012 and 2013.
Sampling and Assaying Procedures
465 samples were selected based on geological logging of RC chips during drilling and rock-saw channel sampling, and sent for assay. All samples from the drilling programme undertaken by Ariana Resources plc, were prepared and assayed by 30g fire assay, and ICP-MS multi-element analysis, at the ALS Global preparation facility in Izmir. Routine re-assaying of all samples assaying greater than 10 g/t of gold and 100 g/t of silver has also been completed by ALS Global. Standard, blank and duplicate samples are being used in the sample batches, which is in line with the Company's quality control procedures. Laboratory sample preparation, assaying procedures and chain of custody are appropriately controlled. The Company maintains an archive of reference RC chip samples, in addition to all sample pulps and splits.
Contacts:
Ariana Resources plc |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616 |
Michael de Villiers, Chairman |
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Kerim Sener, Managing Director |
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Beaumont Cornish Limited |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 |
Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt |
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Beaufort Securities Limited |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7382 8300 |
Jon Belliss |
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Loeb Aron & Company Ltd. |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 1128 |
John Beresford-Peirse |
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IFC Advisory Limited |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3053 8671 |
Tim Metcalfe Graham Herring Heather Armstrong |
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Editor's Notes:
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 Africa, Australia and Europe. 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 are fully funding all exploration work on the JV properties, while Ariana owns 49%. The total resource inventory within this JV is 1.09 million ounces of gold.
The Company's flagship assets are its Kiziltepe 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 at the Red Rabbit Project stands at 475,000 ounces of gold equivalent.
Beaufort Securities Limited and Loeb Aron & Company Ltd. are joint 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.
Glossary of Technical Terms:
"g/t" grams per tonne
"JORC" the Joint Ore Reserves Committee
"m" Metres
"oz" Ounces
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