Excellent drilling results at Salinbas and Arda...

18 February 2013
AIM: AAU

EXCELLENT DRILLING RESULTS AT SALINBAS AND ARDALA

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce the results of its winter drilling programme at Salinbas and Ardala ("Salinbas/Ardala" or "the Project"), which is contained within its Joint Venture with Eldorado Gold Corporation ("Eldorado") in north-eastern Turkey.

Highlights:

• New drilling has identified additional mineralisation on the eastern margins of Salinbas within a corridor trending away from the Ardala Au-Cu-Mo porphyry.  

• Best intercepts from drilling in the Salinbas area include 31.10m @ 1.38g/t Au, 17.90m @ 2.09 g/t Au and 9.20m @ 2.25 g/t Au.  Many mineralised intercepts were obtained from less than 100m below surface.   

• Best intercepts from drilling in the Ardala area include 81.5m @ 1.28 g/t Au + 10.5 g/t Ag, 34.5m @ 2.21 g/t Au + 10.7 g/t Ag and 18.2m @ 2.20 g/t Au + 25.6 g/t Ag.  This area also shows an increase in base-metal content towards the Ardala porphyry. 

• In-fill drilling within the Salinbas area will allow for refinements to the geological model and will enable the Company to calculate a mineral resource estimate.  

• Development of the Project is being conducted in a JV funded exclusively by Eldorado - US$1.77 million committed by Eldorado in the 2012-2013 period. 

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"These latest results from the Salinbas and Ardala prospects further highlight the potential of this underexplored region of Turkey - an area where we continue to utilise our exploration expertise and regional knowledge to identify new potentially multi-million ounce deposits.

"The results reinforce our understanding of the geological potential of the area and suggest that the Salinbas Au-Ag system is related to the Ardala porphyry Au-Cu-Mo system, with gold and silver grades generally increasing towards Salinbas and base-metal grades increasing towards Ardala.  The latest drilling in the area between Salinbas and Ardala indicate the continuity of mineralisation occurring within a 1.5km long zone which trends towards the porphyry, suggesting a genetic link and representing an area of significant future resource upside.  This concept will be further investigated during drilling in 2013 as we remain focused on compiling an initial mineral resource estimate for the Project and continue to advance it up the value curve"  

Drilling Programme

The 2012 Salinbas/Ardala programme was designed to achieve two primary objectives.

The first objective was to complete in-fill drilling, where possible, within the current extents of previous drilling, so that the geological model could be refined and an initial resource estimate could be established.  This part of the programme was completed by a drill-rig (Sandvik DE130) owned and operated by the Company.  Fifteen holes were drilled in this area totalling 1338.2 metres, and were drilled to depths of between 50 and 106 metres, all angled vertically.  Collar spacing between new and old holes in this area was narrowed where possible to approximately 25 metres apart.  Previous drilling results from this area included 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 secondary objective for the programme was to conduct exploration drilling between Salinbas and the Ardala porphyry to the southeast.  Two angled holes were drilled in this region, totalling 405 metres.  Highly encouraging results from these holes have confirmed the need for further exploration in this zone and suggest the continuity of mineralisation from the Ardala porphyry in the valley floor to the Salinbas system on the ridge - representing a vertical distance of 675m and a horizontal distance of close to 2km.  Linking these two areas will be an important objective for future drilling programmes, though the current drilling has confirmed the presence of mineralisation near the mid-point between Salinbas and Ardala.  

This drilling progamme commenced in October 2012 and continued until December 2012 for a total of 1,743.2 metres.  This was less than planned partly due to the difficulty of drilling conditions encountered in the area between Salinbas and Ardala and also due to snowfall, which initially hampered and eventually halted operations for the season.  It is expected that the remaining drill holes within the total programme of 4,000 metres will be completed from April 2013 onwards.  The emphasis of this drilling will be to further explore the corridor of mineralisation between Salinbas and Ardala.

Table 1: New drilling results for the Salinbas prospect (SALH numbered holes) and Ardala (ARD numbered holes).  Results reported for intercepts >0.1g/t Au, a 2 metre minimum interval width and up to 10 metres of waste material allowed. SALH068 showed low recovery (53%) but ended in mineralisation.  ARD009 also showed low recovery (68%) and did not reach the target depth. * Ardala hole intercepts include Cu in the range of 0.12-0.60%, Pb in the range 0.20-1.05% and Zn in the range 0.31-0.90%.  

Drillhole ID	From (m)	To (m)	Intercept (m)	Grade Au (g/t)	Grade Ag (g/t)
SALH060	23.00	41.00	18.00	0.45	2.1
SALH061	39.00	57.00	18.00	0.20	0.5
SALH062	16.90	48.00	31.10	1.38	2.6
including	20.80	38.70	17.90	2.09	3.9
SALH063	18.50	46.90	28.40	0.42	4.4
including	29	40.5	11.50	0.69	6.4
SALH064	51.00	56.00	5.00	0.50	3.8
	96.00	100.00	4.00	0.48	4.4
SALH065	66.90	90.00	23.10	0.40	1.5
including	71.00	78.80	7.80	0.93	2.7
SALH066	52.50	66.00	13.50	0.27	1.8
SALH067	79.00	87.00	8.00	0.31	16.4
SALH068	96.80	106.00	9.20	2.26	17.2
SALH069	25.20	35.00	9.80	0.18	1.1
SALH070	59.00	64.00	5.00	0.21	4.0
SALH071	58.00	92.80	34.80	0.35	8.1
including	58.00	66.00	8.00	1.01	13.2
	83.30	87.00	3.70	0.52	24.3
SALH072	5.50	10.00	4.50	0.47	1.1
SALH073A	0.00	31.00	31.00	0.21	1.6
including	0.00	11.00	11.00	0.38	3.9
SALH074B	0.00	4.00	4.00	2.05	5.9
	40.80	71.00	30.20	0.32	9.3
ARD008A*	114.00	195.50	81.5	1.28	10.5
including	122.00	134.50	12.5	1.66	19.2
	156.50	191.00	34.5	2.21	10.7
ARD009*	136.80	155	18.2	2.20	25.6

Figure 1: Plan of the Salinbas/Ardala zone of mineralisation based on drilling completed to date.  The boundaries of the zone of mineralisation are based in part on the current geological model and also from results of drilling in the corridor between Salinbas and Ardala.

Sampling and Assaying Procedures

NQ size drill-core samples from the drilling programme on Salinbas and mainly HQ size drill-core samples from Ardala were cut in half by a diamond saw and sent for assay.  Sample recovery averaged 78% in the mineralised zones (with a high of 95% and a low of 36%) due to weak ground conditions coinciding with many of these zones.  Approximately half of the intercepts provided recoveries in excess of 85% and are considered acceptable for resource estimation purposes.  

All the samples have been prepared and analysed at the ALS Chemex preparation facility in Izmir via 30g fire assay and for trace-element analysis.  Standard, blank and duplicate samples have been used in the sample batches and quality control checks have determined that these have passed.  Laboratory sample preparation, assaying procedures and chain of custody are appropriately controlled.  The Company maintains an archive of half core samples and a photographic record of all cores for future reference.

Contacts:

Ariana Resources plc	Tel: [phone]
Michael Spriggs, Chairman
Kerim Sener, Managing Director
Beaumont Cornish Limited	Tel: [phone]
Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt
S.P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Tel: [phone]
Ewan Leggat / Laura Littley
St Brides Media & Finance Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Susie Geliher / Lottie Brocklehurst

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 Eastern Europe, 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 11.5% of Tigris Resources Limited.  

S.P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP 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

PDF: Excellent drilling results at Salinbas and Ardala, Turkey

---

This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of Thomson Reuters clients.

The owner of this announcement warrants that:
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the
information contained therein.

Source: Ariana Resources plc via Thomson Reuters ONE

HUG#1678696