PLACING TO RAISE £1.16 MILLION

18 February 2011
AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU

                         PLACING TO RAISE £1.16 MILLION

Ariana  Resources  plc  ("Ariana"  or  "the  Company"), the gold exploration and
development company focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce that it has raised
£1,164,375  before  expenses  via  a  placing ("the Placing"), of 24,513,158 new
ordinary  shares ("the  Placing Shares")  at a  price of 4.75 pence per ordinary
share.   The proceeds of the Placing will  be used to fund the Company's current
exploration  and development projects and equip  Ariana with the ability to take
advantage  of attractive acquisition targets in  order to further strengthen the
Company's portfolio of gold assets.

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"We  are delighted with the support that  we have received for this placing, and
we  believe  this  underpins  the  investment  community's  understanding of the
significant  value accretion potential of the  Company.  These funds provide the
Company  with the ability  to move quickly  on additional assets  which meet our
investment  criteria, as  we build  the Company  towards being a mid-tier multi-
project gold exploration and development company focussed on Turkey, an emerging
globally significant gold destination."

Details of Placing

The  Placing Shares will  represent 9.79% of the  enlarged issued ordinary share
capital, which will then comprise 250,491,675 ordinary shares of 1p each.


Certain  directors intend to  participate in this  placing on the  same terms as
outlined above, and  as provided below:

+-------------------+--------------+----------------------+--------------------+
|                   |Placing Shares|Shareholding following|Percentage   holding|
|                   |              |Placing               |of   issued   shares|
|                   |              |                      |following Placing   |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------+--------------------+
|Michael Spriggs    |100,000       |719,072               |0.28                |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------+--------------------+
|Michael de Villiers|100,000       |2,349,142             |0.93                |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------+--------------------+
|William Payne      |102,632       |452,632               |0.18                |
|                   |              |                      |                    |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------+--------------------+


The  Placing is conditional on the admission of the Placing Shares to trading on
AIM  ('Admission').  Application has been made  to the London Stock Exchange for
the  Placing Shares to be admitted to  trading and it is expected that Admission
will  occur, and  dealings in  the Placing  Shares will  commence on 24 February
2011.

The  Placing Shares are issued  with a one for  one warrant exercisable at 4.75
pence within 12 months of the Admission date.

The  Placing Shares will, when issued, rank  pari passu in all respects with the
existing  issued shares of Ariana, including  the right to receive any dividends
and other distributions declared following Admission.

Contacts:

 Ariana Resources plc                     Tel: [phone]

 Michael Spriggs, Chairman

 Kerim Sener, Managing Director



 Beaumont Cornish Limited                 Tel: [phone]

 Roland Cornish



 Alexander David Securities Limited       Tel: [phone]

 Nick Bealer / David Scott



 Loeb Aron & Company Ltd                  Tel: [phone]

 Jonathan Willis-Richards / Frank Lucas



 St Brides Media & Finance Ltd            Tel: [phone]

 Hugo de Salis

 Susie Geliher



Editors' note:

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 exploring 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 a
Joint   Venture  with  European  Goldfields  Limited  in  north-eastern  Turkey.
 European  Goldfields owns  51% of this  joint venture  and, as the operator, is
fully  funding all  exploration work  on the  JV properties  until delivery of a
feasibility study.

The  Company's  flagship  asset  is  the  Red Rabbit project, which contains the
Kiziltepe  and  Tavsan  sectors.   The  project  contains 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.  The Kiziltepe and Tavsan sectors, 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 15% of Tigris Resources Limited.

Loeb  Aron  &  Company  Ltd.  and  Alexander  David Securities 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
atwww.arianaresources.com.

Ends








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Source: Ariana Resources plc via Thomson Reuters ONE

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