Killick Drilling Results
Ariana Resources PLC
21 March 2007
21 March 2007
AIM: AAU
POSITIVE DRILLING RESULTS FROM THE KINIK GOLD PROSPECT
Ariana Resources plc ('Ariana' or 'the Company'), the gold exploration company
focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce the results from the first eight drill
holes completed on the Kinik prospect at the Company's 100% owned Ivrindi
Project in Balikesir province, western Turkey.
•Eight drill holes completed along a 750m long gold in soil anomaly
•Intersections of 1.41 g/t Au over 6.2m, 4.17 g/t Au over 1.9m and 4.91 g/
t Au over 1.7m
•Gold grades up to 10.4g/t Au from channel sampling and 7.6g/t in drilling
•Prospect discovered from Ariana's remote-sensing programme
A field team from the Company's Turkish operating subsidiary, Galata Madencilik
San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. ('Galata'), have supervised the completion of a (HQ size
63.5 mm) diamond-core drilling programme on the Kinik prospect. The drilling
programme was designed to test the channel sampled area and the anomaly defined
by a soil geochemical grid reported on earlier. The eight holes reported in this
release total 423.30m and were drilled to depths of between 35 and 81 meters and
angled between 50 and 75 degrees along a 750 metres section of the gold in soil
anomaly. Drill hole collars were located 40-50 metres apart.
Ahead of commencing the drilling programme, Galata obtained all necessary
environmental and forestry approvals from the provincial government in Balikesir
and the State Government in Ankara.
Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:
'We are encouraged by the results of this initial drilling programme on the
Kinik prospect which has confirmed the depth continuity of the mineralisation
identified from the surface. The geological setting of the prospect, the unusual
style of mineralisation encountered and the new data obtained from drill
testing, suggests that additional drilling at this locality is warranted. Our
target will be the definition of a near surface, bulk tonnage and low grade gold
resource. We are now in the process of securing an RC-drilling rig for this
purpose and we plan to restart work at this prospect during the summer of 2007.
This is another very encouraging result from our initial exploration programme
and gives us additional confidence in our target identification procedures.
'We are in the process of preparing our first resource statement and we expect
to be in a position to announce this in the next quarter.'
Table 1: Drill hole intersection data from the Kinik prospect drilling
programme:
Hole From To Recovery Apparent Gold (Au
(m) (m) (%) Width (m) g/t)
KNK-D01-06 10.80 11.80 76 1.00 0.76
KNK-D02-06 4.60 5.60 96 1.00 1.01
28.90 35.10 95 6.20 1.41
KNK-D03-06 8.50 9.40 98 0.90 1.03
11.00 12.90 95 1.90 4.17
27.60 30.80 98 3.20 1.51
32.40 33.90 97 1.50 1.88
34.60 36.50 100 1.90 0.61
KNK-D04-06 25.20 27.30 90 2.10 0.86
KNK-D05-07 10.20 11.20 97 1.00 1.62
13.00 15.00 98 2.00 2.97
27.40 28.40 97 1.00 0.58
KNK-D06-07 Mineralised but values are below cut-off
KNK-D07-07
KNK-D08-07 44.00 45.70 100 1.70 4.91
Notes:
No top cut has been applied to assay results
Intersections based on a 0.5 g/t cut off grade
Weighted averages have been calculated for core recovery and gold
grades
Contacts:
Ariana Resources plc
Michael Spriggs, Executive Chairman Tel: 07887 998252
Kerim Sener, Managing Directorinfo@arianaresources.com Tel: 07709 011954
Bankside Consultants
Michael Padley / Susan Scott Tel: 020 7367 8888
Beaumont Cornish Limited
Roland Cornish Tel: 020 7628 3396
Editors' note:
About the Kinik prospect
The Kinik prospect is located in the Ivrindi gold project, which covers an area
of 90km2 in Balikesir province, western Turkey, and lies 70 km to the northwest
of the company's Sindirgi Project. The prospect was identified by the company's
remote sensing program. A 48m long reconnaissance channel sample along a
road-cut within the prospect area determined the potential for significant gold
grades, with high grade zones of 3.2 g/t over 10m, 3.1 g/t over 5m and 1.4 g/t
over 13m (using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off) with a peak grade 10.4 g/t Au. Subsequent
rock-chip sampling undertaken by the company at two separate locations 250m and
900m east and northeast, respectively, of this channel returned grades above 1
g/t Au. A follow-up systematic surface soil sampling programme was completed in
late 2005. This work identified an extensive (750m by 50m) gold in soil
geochemical anomaly (above 50ppb Au) along the faulted contact of altered
andesitic volcanic rocks and limestone units.
The grades encountered in the drilling indicate that the gold mineralisation is
associated with variably sulphidised andesitic rocks in the hanging-wall of a
significant fault. Initial drill-core sampling for gold was not guided by any
particular feature and most sampling was concentrated in the immediate
hanging-wall. The results obtained show that potentially any of the altered
andesite can be mineralised and additional sampling will now be undertaken to
determine the true distribution of gold around the fault. It is possible that
the widths reported in Table 1 above are underestimating the dimensions of the
mineralisation at the prospect.
Sampling and Assaying Procedures
164 HQ size drill-core samples from the drilling programme on the Kinik
prospect, ranging from 0.25m to 1.40m in length, were cut in half by a diamond
saw and sent for assay. Of these, 137 samples returned grades of less than 0.5
g/t Au (83.6% of the total), 12 between 0.5-1 g/t Au (7.3% of total), 12 between
1-5 g/t Au (7.3% of total) and 3 above 5 g/t Au (1.8% of total), with a peak
grade of 7.59 g/t Au. Sample recovery has averaged 95% in the mineralised zones.
All the samples were prepared by the ALS Chemex preparation facility in Izmir
and assayed by 30g fire assay at the ALS Chemex laboratory in Romania. Standard,
blank and duplicate samples were used in the sample batches in line with the
Company's quality control procedures. Quality control checks have determined
that all blanks and standards passed and duplicate samples showed excellent
correlations, with 99% correlation for crushed duplicates and 100% correlation
for pulp duplicates. 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.
Dr Kerim Sener, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, is Ariana's Managing Director. 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 Southern Africa and the Northern Territory of Australia. He has
read and approved the technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement.
About Ariana Resources
Ariana is a dynamic exploration company focused on the discovery of epithermal
gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold deposits with multi-million ounce potential
within the Tethyan metallogenic belt of Turkey. The Company has a portfolio of
prospective licences covering approximately 1,800km2, selected on the basis of
its advanced in-house databases.
The Company's flagship asset is the 235km2 Sindirgi gold project, which targets
a series of prospects, within a prolific mineralised district in western Turkey.
The project hosts over 45km of gold-silver bearing epithermal quartz veins. The
drilling programme was focussed on defining gold resources (in compliance with
the JORC code) at the prospects of Kiziltepe and Kepez.
Ambrian Partners Limited and King & Shaxson Capital Limited 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.
Ends
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