Operational Status Granted on Kizilcukur

2 October 2012
AIM: AAU

OPERATIONAL STATUS GRANTED ON KIZILCUKUR

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce that the licence containing its Kizilcukur Project has been granted 10 year operational status by the General Directorate of Mining Affairs in Turkey.  The Company is planning for a 1,500m drilling programme on this property to commence in Q2 2013. 

Highlights:

• Licence containing Kizilcukur has been upgraded to operational status, valid until 24 September 2022. 

• 2km of mineralised quartz veins containing high-grade gold and silver have been delineated at Kizilcukur - surface assay results of up to 152g/t gold and 1,320g/t silver.

• Kizilcukur represents the northeastern-most expression of the Sindirgi Gold Corridor, which is itself contained by the Red Rabbit project area.

• IP/Resistivity geophysics completed by Ariana has confirmed potential for down dip continuation of the vein systems and will be used for drill targeting.

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"The Kizilcukur property comprises an important part of our wider exploration strategy within the Red Rabbit project area.  The prospect contains several gold-silver bearing veins, which in places contain old workings.  Previous drilling on the veins was mainly clustered at the far northwestern end of the system in an area where old workings were found extending to several tens of metres below surface and from which exceptionally high grades of gold and silver have been recorded. 

"Much of the strike length of the veins remains untested by drilling and both geochemical data and field mapping, coupled with geophysical data suggests the presence of other mineralised structures on the property which cross-cut the main trend of the veins.  These will be tested in future exploration programmes. 

"The Company is planning a 1,500m drilling programme for Q2 2013, though it will now need to apply for an extension to existing forestry permits following the grant of the operational licence.  This drilling programme will adequately drill test the full strike length of the mapped veins and target the definition of a near surface resource that could in the longer term provide additional feed for the planned Kiziltepe plant."
  
Details of the Kizilcukur Project

The Kizilcukur Project consists of one licence located in the Balikesir Province in Western Turkey (coordinates: 626150 m E; 4360440 m N).  The property lies 21km to the ENE (straight line) and 60km by road from the Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project.  A royalty will be payable to Dogu Akdeniz Mineralleri San. ve Tic. Ltd. of 2% Net Smelter Return on commercial production from the Kizilcukur property.

The property covers an area containing a series of sub-parallel quartz veins hosted by ophiolitic units that trend northwest and extend for at least two kilometres (Figure 1).  The main vein exhibits classic low-sulphidation epithermal features and attains a maximum true width of 8m.  Rock chip sampling along outcrop of the main vein has returned bonanza-grade assay results of up to 152g/t gold and 1,320g/t silver from inside an old working.  Later channel sampling across the vein in this area returned assays of 8m at 3g/t gold and 152g/t silver, suggesting that the extremely high grades encountered at the margins of the old workings represents the material originally mined.

Figure 1 (see attached): Map of the Kizilcukur prospect, showing mapped veins superimposed on satellite imagery.  The location of previous drilling is also shown.

The western quartz vein extends over a strike length of 800m.  Composite rock chip sampling of 80m strike along this quartz vein returned encouraging assay results of 6m at 3.3g/t gold, 2m at 9.6g/t gold and 1m at 7.2g/t gold.  A total of 17 drill holes were completed on the property in 2007 and 2008 (Table 1).  An internal resource model based on this drilling has been compiled by the Company and will be used to guide future drilling. 

Figure 2 (see attached): Resistivity results from the ridge containing the vein system at Kizilcukur.  Three anomalous areas were defined using resistivity and chargeability inversions. 

The Company has completed IP/Resistivity geophysics over the vein system to help define potential drilling targets (Figure 2).  This data has been integrated with field mapping and geochemistry datasets and suggests the potential for mineralised cross-cutting structures that were not previously targeted by drilling.  One highly anomalous zone delineated via surface sampling on the flank of the area previously drilled appears to represent a mineralised N-S trending structure.  Such structures have been verified via field mapping and this discovery will influence the planning of future drilling programmes.  Furthermore, some old workings appear to be located near the intersection of NW and N to NE-trending structures. 

Another notable observation is that two "blind" geophysical targets, KC01 and 02 (Figure 2) are located directly beneath significant geochemical anomalies.  These anomalies in the SE extension of the vein system suggest that two of the main veins converge and continue for another 500m in strike.  This possibility will also be tested by new drilling. 

Table 1: Drilling results from exploration at Kizilcukur, as previously reported in a news release published in June 2011.

Drill Hole	From (m)	To (m)	Intercept (m)	Grade
KDTD04	38.0	41.6	3.6	3.4 g/t Au, 90 g/t Ag
And	44.0	45.0	1.0	3.3 g/t Au, 327 g/t Ag
KDTD05	42.0	43.7	1.7	2.0 g/t Au, 72 g/t Ag
KDTD10	71.6	75.1	3.5	47 g/t Ag
KDTD13	110.0	112.9	2.9	16.1 g/t Au
And	106.6	114.7	8.1	29 g/t Ag
KDTD15	54.7	56.1	1.4	1.4 g/t Au, 42 g/t Ag
And	60.3	61.0	0.7	1.0 g/t Au, 28 g/t Ag
KDTD16	116.0	122.9	6.9	25.3g/t Ag

Contacts:

Ariana Resources plc	Tel: [phone]
Michael Spriggs, Chairman
Kerim Sener, Managing Director
Beaumont Cornish Limited	Tel: [phone]
Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt
Fairfax I.S. PLC	Tel: [phone]
Ewan Leggat / Laura Littley
St Brides Media & Finance Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Susie Geliher / Hugo de Salis

Editors' note:

Dr Kerim Sener, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, is the Managing Director of Ariana Resources plc.  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 Australia.  He has read and approved the technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement. 

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 is fully funding all exploration work on the JV properties, while Ariana owns 49% and is the operator.

The Company's flagship assets are its Sindirgi 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 presently being assessed as to their economic merits and now form part of a Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co.  The total resource inventory of the Company stands at 448,000 ounces of gold equivalent. 

Ariana also has a strategic investment in Tigris Resources Limited (www.tigrisresources.com), a private Jersey-based exploration company, which is focused on the exploration of copper and gold deposits in southeastern Turkey.  Ariana retains 12.5% of Tigris Resources Limited. 

Fairfax I.S. PLC are 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

Figure 2
Figure 1

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Source: Ariana Resources plc via Thomson Reuters ONE

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