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Re: News Releases - Thursday, February 14, 2008
POSITIVE DRILLING RESULTS: KIZILTEPE
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14 February 2008
AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU
POSITIVE DRILLING RESULTS: KIZILTEPE
Ariana Resources plc ('Ariana' or 'the Company'), the gold
exploration company focused on Turkey, announces the results from the
seven most recent Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes completed on
the Banu Vein at the Kiziltepe gold prospect. The results show the
potential for resource additions to be derived from veins other than
the Arzu South and North vein system at the Kiziltepe prospect within
the Sindirgi Project.
Highlights
* Gold-equivalent intersections of 3.81 g/t over 6m, 3.78 g/t over
5m and 2.58g/t Au over 7m
* Follow-up drilling on Banu Vein scheduled for late February
* Drilling programme to be extended to drill new targets
The Banu Vein has a strike length of 750m and has the most uniform
grade at surface of all the veins at the Kiziltepe prospect. For
550m of surface sampled strike length, the vein carries a fairly
consistent grade of approximately 2-3 g/t Au over a true average
width of 2.5m. Evidence from both the new and previous drilling
indicates an improvement in grade at depth and along strike to the
southeast. The latest drilling has confirmed the distribution of
gold and silver grade along a greater strike length than that tested
and reported on in 2007.
Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:
'The recent drilling on the Banu Vein has confirmed our expectations
of the mineralisation at this location and we expect that an initial
JORC compliant resource will be established here soon. We have
scheduled further drilling to start in late February, which will test
a 200m strike extension of the vein that has only been channel
sampled to date. This additional drilling is now warranted to
confirm the potential of this vein to yield a viable resource.
'The Company has also taken the decision to extend the
Diamonddrilling programme by up to 1,500m to test new target areas on the
Kiziltepe prospect, whilst the economic options for Kiziltepe are
being evaluated. This extended drilling is additional to the 2,500m
announced last month. Geophysical testing is also underway to assist
in the definition of possible 'blind' targets and will be used more
extensively if the geophysical results are proven positive by
drilling.
'These results further support our expectation that the Sindirgi
Project will prove to be economic and we will update the JORC
resource figures at the end of the first quarter'.
Details of Programme
A field team from the Company's Turkish operating subsidiary, Galata
Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti., supervised the completion of seven
RC drill holes (114.3 mm diameter) on the Banu Vein. The holes
reported in this release totalled 655m. They were drilled to depths
of between 60 and 134 metres and angled at 60-70 degrees along a 300m
section of vein strike length. Quartz veins, other mineralised
structures and stockwork were located in all seven holes drilled in
this programme. Selected intersections are given in Table 1 below.
Table 1: RC drill hole intersection data from the Banu Vein:
Gold Silver Au +
Hole Easting Northing From To Apparent Width (Au (Ag Au
(m) (m) (m) g/t) g/t) equiv.
(g/t)
RC28-07 607390 4348094 7 8 1 0.56 0.60 0.57
33 35 2 2.87 74.45 4.36
RC29-07 607368 4348112 42 48 6 2.16 82.68 3.81
50 51 1 0.78 26.50 1.31
RC30-07 607348 4348153 58 59 1 0.76 21.60 1.20
62 63 1 0.70 42.80 1.55
63 67 4 2.70 59.58 3.89
RC31-07 607323 4348191 70 71 1 0.50 10.50 0.71
74 79 5 2.40 69.14 3.78
RC32-07 607301 4348229 107 114 7 1.43 57.74 2.58
RC33-07 607282 4348275 No significant result
RC34-07 607265 4348304 26 28 2 1.58 2.70 1.63
66 69 3 1.47 69.50 2.86
Notes:
No top cut has been applied to assay results
Intersections based on a 0.5 g/t cut off grade
Weighted averages have been calculated for core recovery and
gold/silver grades
Au + Au equiv. g/t is the sum of the gold grade and the gold
equivalent grade of silver based on a gold/silver price ratio of
approximately 1:50
Sampling and Assaying Procedures
Ariana considers that the RC drilling method is applicable to this
style of mineralisation due to physical differences between
mineralised and unmineralised material and the high recoveries
achieved through fractured ground. SRK determined that there is no
particular bias between RC and previous
Diamond drilling results on
the veins at Kiziltepe, and that the RC drilling data will contribute
to a revised mineral resource estimate.
To date 188 RC chip samples from the drilling programme on the Banu
Vein were sent for assay. Of these, 153 samples have returned grades
of less than 0.5 g/t Au (81% of the total), 8 samples between 0.5-1
g/t Au (4% of total), 26 between 1-5 g/t Au (14% of total) and 1
samples above 5 g/t Au (less than 1% of total), with the peak grade
at 5.83 g/t Au and 115 g/t Ag.
All samples from the drilling programme undertaken by Ariana
Resources plc. have been prepared by the ALS Chemex preparation
facility in Izmir and assayed by 30g fire assay at the ALS Chemex
laboratory in Romania. Routine re-assaying of all samples assaying
greater than 10 g/t Au and 100 g/t Ag has also been completed by ALS
Chemex. Standard, blank and duplicate samples are being used in the
sample batches, which is in line with the Company's quality control
procedures. Laboratory sample preparation, assaying procedures and
chain of custody are appropriately controlled. The Company maintains
an archive of reference RC chip samples, in addition to all sample
pulps and splits.
Contacts:
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Ariana Resources plc | Tel: 020 7407 3616 |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Michael Spriggs, Chairman | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Kerim Sener, Managing Director | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Beaumont Cornish Limited | Tel: 020 7628 3396 |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Roland Cornish | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Bankside Consultants | Tel: 020 7367 8888 |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Michael Padley / Louise Davis | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Loeb Aron & Company Limited | Tel: 020 7628 1128 |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Peter Freeman / Frank Lucas | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| City Capital Corporation Limited | Tel: 020 7842 5867 |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Charles Dampney | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| | |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| King & Shaxson Capital Limited | Tel: 020 7426 5986 |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| | |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
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 the Kiziltepe prospect
The Kiziltepe prospect is located within a ten-year renewable
operating licence that forms part of the Company's 100% owned
Sindirgi gold project in Balikesir Province, western Turkey.
Kiziltepe lies approximately 100km east of the one million ounce
vein-hosted Ovacik gold mine and 115km northwest of the five million
ounce Kisladag gold mine. The prospect hosts over 20km in strike
length of gold-silver bearing low-sulphidation epithermal quartz
veins across an area of at least 3km by 1km. Individual veins are
exposed for up to 700m and widths vary between 1m and 14m. The main
veins trend northwest, dip to the northeast and are hosted within
Miocene age dacitic volcanic rocks.
Ariana acquired the Sindirgi Gold Project from Newmont Mining
Corporation (NYSE & ASX: NEM; TSX: NMC) in March 2005. Newmont
retains the right to a royalty of up to 2.5% on future gold
production from the Sindirgi gold project.
Ahead of commencing the drilling programme, Ariana obtained all
necessary environmental and forestry approvals from the provincial
government in Balikesir and the State Government in Ankara.
About Ariana Resources
Ariana is a dynamic exploration company focused on the discovery and
development of epithermal gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold
deposits with multi-million ounce potential within the Tethyan
metallogenic belt of Turkey. The Company has a portfolio of
prospective licences selected on the basis of its advanced in-house
remote sensing database.
The Company's flagship asset is the Sindirgi Gold Project, which
targets a series of prospects, within a prolific mineralised district
in western Turkey. The project hosts over 45km of gold-silver
bearing epithermal quartz veins.
Loeb Aron & Company Limited, City Capital Corporation Limited and
King & Shaxson Capital 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 at www.arianaresources.com.
Ends
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Copyright (c) 2008 ARIANA RESOURCES PLC (AAU) All rights reserved.
For more information visit our website at
http://www.arianaresources.com/ or send mailto:info@arianaresources.com
Message sent on Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 1:45:58 AM Pacific Time
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