Positive Drilling Results from Salinbas

22 March 2012
AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU

POSITIVE DRILLING RESULTS FROM SALINBAS

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, announces further drilling results from the 2011 exploration programme undertaken at Salinbas within our Joint Venture project area in the Artvin region of north eastern Turkey.

Highlights:

• New drilling has defined a gently dipping mineralised body emplaced along a thrust zone to the east of a series of breccia pipes 

• Best intercepts related to the follow-up drilling include: 

  • 9.5m @ 6.48 g/t Au + 39.4 g/t Ag; 

  • 11.3m @ 4.98 g/t Au + 42.8 g/t Ag and, 

  • 25m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 7.9 g/t Ag. 

• The drilling to date at Salinbas has outlined a mineralised body of areal extent 300m x 500m, but the mineralisation remains open in several directions 

• Resource estimation is in progress and drilling will continue in 2012 

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"These results underpin our confidence in the exploration potential of our projects in the Artvin region of north eastern Turkey.  The virgin discovery of Salinbas by our JV team was a true exploration success and the prospect continues to yield highly encouraging drilling results.  The fact that the Salinbas system is still open to the south and to the east indicates that there is considerable scope to define a substantial gold system.  The orientation of the mineralisation and the continuity of high grades suggest that the mineralised body will provide for a resource, which could be mined by open-pit methods.

"The JV team is currently planning for a further drilling programme scheduled to commence in May 2012.  We have in place an efficient, dedicated team, committed to bringing this programme to a successful conclusion."

Exploration Programme

Drilling to date has focused on two main areas: the Salinbas gold prospect and the Ardala copper-gold porphyry.  A total of 8,913m of diamond drilling has been completed over these properties.  In addition, regional sampling aimed at selecting other targets for licence applications has also continued across the Pontides region.

Salinbas Exploration Results

During late 2010, Ariana announced the first drilling results from the then newly discovered Salinbas high-grade epithermal gold prospect.  Mineralisation is associated with a series of breccias pipes along a structural corridor and the system is interpreted to relate to the Ardala porphyry some 2 kilometres away.  The discovery was revealed in a series of trenches, and a programme extending existing trenches and excavating new ones was carried out in 2010.  The trenches define mineralisation over a total strike length of some 300 metres.  All significant trench results in bedrock to date are summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: Trench results for the Salinbas prospect.  Results reported for intercepts >1g/t Au using a 0.5 g/t Au lower cut, no upper cut and up to 10 metres of waste material allowed.

Trench ID	Meters	Grade Au (g/t)	Grade Ag (g/t)
ST1	32	5.4	7.8
ST2	20	1.2	3.7
ST3	46	8.3	39.0
ST9	4	1.5	1.5
ST10	16	1.3	5.3
ST10	1	1.9	4.3
ST11	5	2.5	18.3
ST11	55	7.8	9.2
ST12	28	1.8	4.0
ST12	8	8.4	13.8
ST13	38	3.7	12.1
ST14	31	1.6	9.4
ST15	27	2.0	10.6
ST20	13.3	1.2	1.3

A follow-up drilling programme commenced on the Salinbas prospect in 2010 and continued during 2011 (Figure 1).  A total of 6,951m has been drilled for a total of 60 drill holes at Salinbas to date.  The results of the 2011 drilling programme are provided in Table 2.  

Figure 1

Table 2: New drilling results for the Salinbas prospect.  Results reported for intercepts >1g/t Au using a 0.5 g/t Au lower cut, no upper cut, a 2m minimum composite width and up to 10 metres of waste material allowed.

Drillhole ID	From (m)	To (m)	Length (m)	Grade Au (g/t)	Grade Ag (g/t)
SALH015	No significant intercept
SALH016	0	2	2	0.88	2.90
	6	15.8	9.8	1.53	3.62
	80.5	83	2.5	0.99	3.69
	91	95	4	1.22	10.10
SALH017	5.8	20.5	14.7	1.79	35.61
SALH018	27.2	30	2.8	2.97	36.85
SALH019	7	11	4	1.61	2.23
	31	33	2	0.65	2.58
	35	37	2	0.59	1.49
SALH020	47.9	50.4	2.5	4.10	3.67
SALH021	33	61	28	0.78	3.61
SALH022	0	25	25	3.34	7.85
SALH023	0	11.3	11.3	4.98	42.82
SALH024	0	10.9	10.9	3.80	16.66
SALH025	No significant intercept
SALH026	0	4	4	0.87	1.63
	13	39	26	1.09	2.63
	49.4	58.3	8.9	1.28	1.92
SALH027	No significant intercept
SALH028	No significant intercept
SALH029	0	4.6	4.6	2.24	20.05
SALH030	27.9	30.8	2.9	1.41	4.27
	43	45	2	0.51	2.21
	59.6	66	6.4	2.63	7.96
SALH031	0	5.8	5.8	1.02	3.85
SALH032	No significant intercept
SALH033	30.8	38.4	7.6	3.45	72.40
SALH034	34.5	42.6	8.1	3.24	45.25
SALH035	52.1	56.9	4.8	4.80	15.67
SALH036	183.7	190	6.3	0.95	10.50
SALH037	No significant intercept
SALH038	No significant intercept
SALH039	63.5	65.7	2.2	2.37	150.57
SALH040	48	52.1	4.1	1.18	45.91
SALH041	0	2	2	1.15	3.83
	24.3	27.2	2.9	1.00	9.57
SALH042	16.9	32.5	15.6	1.47	2.64
SALH043	22.4	26.6	4.2	0.93	2.59
	33.8	37.8	4	0.77	3.79
SALH044	No significant intercept
SALH045	No significant intercept
SALH046	79.5	89	9.5	6.48	39.43
SALH047	No significant intercept
SALH048	No significant intercept
SALH049	64.7			2.07	20.09
	78	80	2	0.59	4.92
SALH050	No significant intercept
SALH051	83.5	87.5	4	0.71	10.83
SALH052	101.9	106.3	4.4	1.95	5.47
	110	112	2	0.84	2.41
SALH053	50.4	52.8	2.4	2.02	5.21
	79	81	2	0.74	1.33
SALH054	70	72.3	2.3	1.17	10.25
SALH055	No significant intercept
SALH056	98.2	108.9	10.7	0.86	3.35
SALH057	No significant intercept
SALH058	50	68.1	18.1	1.25	13.79
SALH059	2.4	6.5	4.1	1.23	1.69
	10.7	21	10.3	0.61	1.45

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.

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 maintains a Joint Venture in northeastern Turkey and 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 approximately 13% 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.

Figure 1

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Source: Ariana Resources plc via Thomson Reuters ONE

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