Kepez Sampling Results

Ariana Resources PLC
02 February 2006



02 February 2006
AIM: AAU

             HIGH GRADE INTERSECTS OBTAINED AT KEPEZ GOLD PROSPECT

Ariana Resources plc ('Ariana' or 'the Company'), the gold exploration company
focused exclusively on Turkey, announces the results from initial rock-chip
channel sampling at its 100% owned Kepez gold prospect in Balikesir Province,
western Turkey. The results confirm high gold and silver grades, with all five
channels sampled intersecting significant mineralisation.

  * Best intersects of 8.68 g/t Au over 16m and 6.28 g/t Au over 11m
  * Peak grades of 23.5 g/t Au and 99.1 g/t Ag
  * Kepez prospect hosts over 2.5km of quartz veins mapped by Ariana to date

In December a field team from the Company's Turkish operating subsidiary, Galata
Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. undertook rock-chip channel sampling along a
100m section of the Karakaya Vein (KV) at the Kepez gold prospect. The programme
was designed to verify the gold grades and widths at surface indicated by
historical drill data.

Results from the first five channels, measuring up to 16m wide and spaced
approximately 25m apart along the vein, have been received and are presented in
Table 1 below. All five channels intersected gold mineralisation with higher
grade intercepts of 6.28 g/t over 11m (channel #2) and 8.68 g/t Au over 16m
(channel #4). Significantly, channel #4 ended in vein grading above 8 g/t Au at
each end.

KV has been mapped for 475m and remains open along the strike. It is considered
to be the source of the recently announced grab sample which assayed 19.66 g/t
Au. The presence of broken rock immediately down slope and the logging of
'voids' in historic (1992) drill data indicate that artisanal scale mining has
possibly been undertaken on KV. Completion of the channel sampling programme and
investigation of a significant (1.7km by 1.8km) satellite defined (ASTER)
target, located 0.5km south of and potentially associated with KV, will resume
in April once recent snow cover has cleared.

Steven Poulton, Chief Executive, commented:
'The early discovery of such a wide and high grade zone of gold mineralisation
at the Kepez prospect is very positive. Over 2.5km of veins have already been
mapped by Ariana to date and further work is required to systematically test the
whole prospect area.'

Kepez lies only 6.5km northeast of and within the same Operating Licence as the
Company's Kiziltepe prospect, where approximately 20km of veins have been mapped
and on which we announced positive results in January. The two prospects of
Kepez and Kiziltepe form part of the 224km2 Sindirgi Gold Project, which we
acquired from Newmont Mining Corporation in 2005. While at least three
additional prospect areas remain to be tested by Ariana at Sindirgi, the project
is clearly starting to exhibit many of the hallmarks associated with the
presence of a major gold system.'

Table 1: KV rock-chip channel sample results

Line         Intersection Width (m)  Gold Grade (g/t Au)  Silver Grade (g/t Ag)
Number
         1                       1                 3.42                   7.00
         2                      11                 6.28                  34.39
Includes                         5                12.25                  51.46
         3                      14                 2.43                  23.18
Includes                         5                 4.25                  38.40
         4                      16                 8.68                  58.92
Includes                         6                11.75                  72.93
         5                       4                 1.62                  57.53

Notes:
No top cut has been applied to assay results.
Intersection based on a 0.5 g/t cut off grade.

A map detailing all of the results described in this release is available at the
Company's website: www.arianaresources.com.

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

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

Editors' note:

About Kepez
The Kepez prospect is located within the same 36km2 ten-year renewable operating
licence which hosts the Company's Kiziltepe prospect, that forms part of the
Company's 100% owned 224km2 Sindirgi gold project in Balikesir Province, western
Turkey. Sindirgi lies approximately 100km east of the one million ounce
vein-hosted Ovacik gold mine and 115km northwest of the five million ounce
Kisladag gold deposit.

Ariana has mapped over 2.5km in strike length of gold-silver bearing
low-sulphidation epithermal quartz veins at Kepez, across an area of at least
2km by 1km. Individual veins are exposed for up to 850m and widths vary between
1m and 25m. The main vein trends northward, dips to the west at 50 degrees and
is hosted along the contact between Miocene age andesitic volcanic rocks and
Cretaceous ophiolitic units.

The majority of exploration work to date at Kepez has focused on the KV vein,
where results from drilling by previous owners include intersections of 6.9 g/t
over 4m and 2.2 g/t over 1m. Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE & ASX: NEM; TSX:
NMC) retains the right to a royalty of up to 2.5% on future gold production from
Kepez.

Sampling and Assaying Procedures
The KV programme consisted of the collection of 86 composite rock-chip samples
of 1m in length. Of these, 40 samples returned grades of less than 0.5 g/t Au
(46% of the total), 6 samples between 0.5-1 g/t Au (7% of total), 24 between 1-5
g/t Au (28% of total) and 16 samples assayed above 5 g/t Au (19% of total), with
a peak grade of 23.5 g/t Au.

All samples have been prepared by the ALS Chemex preparation facility in Izmir
and assayed by fire assay at the ALS Chemex laboratory in Vancouver. Re-assaying
of all samples assaying greater than 10 g/t gold has also been completed by ALS
Chemex. Regular standard and blank samples are being used in the sample sequence
in line with the Company's quality control procedures.

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



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