21 January 2019
AIM: AAU
SHARE BUY-BACK: UPDATE
Further to the announcement on 16 January 2019 that the Company was purchasing a total of 4,500,000 ordinary shares of 0.1 pence in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at 1.483 pence per share (the "Purchase") to be held in Treasury, the Board has been advised that the Company does not have sufficient distributable reserves within the Company's balance sheet in order to complete the transaction.
Despite a special resolution having been passed at the last AGM, which had been proposed to facilitate such transactions, the Company has resolved to reverse this transaction following the advice now received. Consequently, the Directors of the Company will take responsibility for this situation by acquiring the shares that were the subject of that transaction personally. A further announcement on this will be made at the earliest practicable time.
Furthermore, the Company is now considering whether to pursue a Court Scheme in order to achieve a reduction of capital, which would provide the Company with positive distributable reserves to enable future purchases of its own shares and/or distributions to shareholders, such as dividends. This process will require a shareholder resolution and further information will be provided on this at a suitable time.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
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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Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500 |
Atholl Tweedie / James Stearns |
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Yellow Jersey PR Limited |
Tel: +44 (0) 7544 275 882 |
Felicity Winkles/ Tim Thompson / Harriet Jackson / Henry Wilkinson |
[email protected] |
Editors' Note:
About Ariana Resources:
Ariana is an exploration and development company with mining operations focused on epithermal gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold deposits in Turkey, the largest gold producing country in Europe. The Company is developing a portfolio of prospective licences originally selected on the basis of its in-house geological and remote-sensing database, which now contain a total of 1.6 million ounces of gold and other metals (as at end-2017). Ariana's objective is to cost-effectively add value to its projects through focused exploration and to develop its operations, primarily through well-financed joint ventures.
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, form part of a 50:50 Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co. The Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project is fully-permitted and is currently in production. The total resource inventory at the Red Rabbit Project and wider project area stands at c. 605,000 ounces of gold equivalent (as at end-2017). At Kiziltepe a Net Smelter Return ("NSR") royalty of up to 2.5% on production is payable to Franco-Nevada Corporation. At Tavsan an NSR royalty of up to 2% on future production is payable to Sandstorm Gold.
In north-eastern Turkey, Ariana owns 100% of the Salinbas Gold Project, comprising the Salinbas gold-silver deposit and the Ardala copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry among other prospects. The total resource inventory of the Salinbas project area is c. 1 million ounces of gold equivalent. A NSR royalty of up to 2% on future production is payable to Eldorado Gold Corporation.
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited are broker 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.
