Ariana Resources plc : Directorate change

24 August 2016
AIM: AAU
BOARD APPOINTMENT

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Christopher Sangster to the Board as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.

Mr Sangster is a mining engineer with over 35 years experience in the mining industry.  He has a BSc (Hons) in Mining Engineering from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College in London, and a GDE in Mineral Economics from the University of Witwatersrand and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining. His career covers extensive production and technical experience at senior levels in both junior and multi-national companies in gold, diamonds and base metals in Africa, UK and Canada and covers a wide range of mining applications.  Between 1996 and 1999 Mr Sangster was General Manager for Caledonia Mining Corporation for the Cononish Gold Project and a Director of Fynegold Exploration, where he was responsible for all aspects of the project including feasibility study preparation, project due diligence, finance negotiations, exploration initiatives and planning permission applications.  After 1999, Mr. Sangster moved to the Zambian Copper Belt with Anglo American plc / KCM plc where he attained the position of Vice President Mining Services and in 2005 joined Australian Mining Consultants as a Principal Mining Engineer.  In 2007, Chris co-founded ASX and AIM listed Scotgold Resources and was its Managing Director until October 2014. He remains a non-Executive Director and Technical Consultant to Scotgold and is also an Associate Consultant for Bara Consulting Ltd.

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented: 

"We are very pleased to welcome Chris to the Board of Ariana, joining us at a pivotal moment in our development, particularly as we advance the Kiziltepe Mine in to production.  We have worked with Chris during the past year on a consulting basis, and are now looking forward to the Company benefitting from his Board-level input to our future plans.  Chris is an exceptionally well-qualified and practical mining engineer with significant senior management and board-level experience.  His experience and insight will be invaluable in the next stage of the development of the Company and as we continue to prove up our other projects in Turkey and beyond."

Christopher John Stuart Sangster (aged 58) has the following current directorships:

Scotgold Resources (SGZ)
Scotgold Resources Limited
Fynegold Exploration Limited
SGZ France SAS

There is no further information to be disclosed under Schedule Two, (g) (i)-(viii) of the AIM Rules.

Mr Sangster currently holds 695,652 ordinary shares in the Company, representing a holding of 0.08%. 

 Contacts:

Ariana Resources plc	Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616
Michael de Villiers, Chairman
Kerim Sener, Managing Director
Beaumont Cornish Limited	Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt
Beaufort Securities Limited	Tel: +44 (0) 20 7382 8300
Jon Belliss
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited	Tel: [phone] 2500
Adam James / Tom Salvesen

Editors' Notes:

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 being assessed as to their economic merits and now form part of a Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co.  The Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project is fully-permitted and is currently in construction.  The total resource inventory at the Red Rabbit Project and wider project area stands at c. 525,000 ounces of gold equivalent. 

Beaufort Securities Limited and Panmure Gordon (UK) 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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Source: Ariana Resources plc via Globenewswire

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