Further re exploration

Ariana Resources PLC
16 February 2006



16 February 2006
AIM: AAU

                FURTHER POSITIVE RESULTS FROM LATEST EXPLORATION

Ariana Resources plc ('Ariana' or 'the Company'), the gold exploration company
focused exclusively on Turkey, announces positive results from its generative
exploration programme on the Company's Kosedere and Cinarpinar licences in
Canakkale Province, western Turkey. These licences lie 165km to the west of
Ariana's Sindirgi licence area, where the Company recently announced encouraging
rock-chip channel sample gold values on its Kepez prospect. In this latest
programme, reconnaissance samples of rock 'float' collected from streams have
returned grades of up to 6 g/t gold, and elsewhere anomalous copper and other
base metal mineralisation has been identified.

  * Series of stream quartz 'float' samples return 6.1 g/t Au, 4.0 g/t Au and
    2.2 g/t Au
  * Reconnaissance rock chip samples of 0.19% Copper and 0.25% Zinc
  * 57km2 exploration area targeted by the Company's remote sensing programme

Between December and January, a field team from the Company's Turkish operating
subsidiary, Galata Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti., undertook reconnaissance
exploration on two 100% owned contiguous licences at Kosedere and Cinarpinar
(57km2) in Canakkale Province, western Turkey. The licence areas were selected
on the basis of their geological prospectivity and co-incident kaolinite and
alunite signatures, minerals whose presence are indicative of epithermal or
porphyry related mineralised systems, as determined by the Company's
remote-sensing study. The reconnaissance exploration programme consisted of
geological mapping, stream-sediment, rock-chip and soil sampling, in order to
prioritise areas for detailed follow-up. A map detailing the results described
in this release is available at the Company's website: www.arianaresources.com.

Quartz vein 'float' samples, collected from stream beds in the north eastern
part of the Cinarpinar licence, showed a variety of textures indicative of
epithermal gold mineralisation systems including colloform to crustiform
varieties. These samples returned peak gold values of 6.1 g/t Au, 4.0 g/t Au and
2.2 g/t Au. In the western part of the Kosedere licence, prospecting has
identified significant base metal anomalies, with peak results of 343 ppm copper
and 699 ppm zinc in soil samples, in addition to values of 1,865 ppm copper
(0.19% Cu) and 2,510 ppm zinc (0.25 % Zn) in rock-chip samples.

Steven Poulton, Chief Executive, commented:
'We are pleased to report further grassroots success from our continuing
generative exploration programme. The discovery of high gold grades in quartz
float samples, potentially derived from within our licence areas, as well as the
identification of anomalous copper, lead and zinc, suggests the presence of a
significant mineralised system. Yet again, this provides a powerful
demonstration of the capability of our modern exploration approach.

'In line with our growth strategy, and to accelerate exploration across our
portfolio of properties, we have recently doubled the size of our exploration
team, which now includes eight Turkish geologists.'

Contacts:
Ariana Resources plc
Steven Poulton, Chief Executive                 Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]                 Mobile: [phone]

Bankside Consultants
Michael Padley / Susan Scott                    Tel: [phone]

Editors' note:

Sampling and Assaying Procedures
A total of 123 '-80 mesh' stream-sediment, 51 rock-chip, and 30 soil samples
were collected. All samples have been prepared by the ALS Chemex preparation
facility in Izmir and assayed by fire assay and ICP-MS at the ALS Chemex
laboratory in Vancouver.

Dr Kerim Sener, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, is Ariana's Exploration 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 technology-driven exploration company focused on the discovery of
multi-million ounce potential epithermal gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold
deposits within the Tethyan metallogenic belt of Turkey. The Company has a
portfolio of prospective licences covering approximately 1,000km2, selected on
the basis of its advanced in-house remote sensing database. Ariana's broker is
Ambrian Partners Limited 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






                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange