Metallurgical Results: Tavsan

27 August 2008
AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU

                    METALLURGICAL RESULTS: TAVSAN

Ariana  Resources  plc   ("Ariana"  or  "the   Company"),  the   gold
exploration and development company focused on Turkey, is pleased  to
announce that  the results  of  metallurgical testwork  conducted  on
material from  the  Tavsan Gold  Prospect  demonstrate that  the  ore
performs very well under heap-leach  conditions.  These data will  be
used as part  of a  broader scoping  study scheduled  for later  this
year.

Highlights:


  * Mineralisation is amenable to the heap-leach processing option



  * Bottle-roll tests yielded gold extraction levels of up to 88%



  * Column-leach testwork yielded gold extraction levels of up to 80%



Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"The results of these initial and follow-up metallurgical results are
very encouraging and point toward the  amenability of the ore to  the
heap-leach method of  processing.  We are  now evaluating  strategies
for the  development  of the  deposit  within the  shortest  possible
timeframe.

"Preparations are underway for  further resource definition  drilling
to expand the original resource estimate of some 140,000 ounces.  Our
aim is to increase and refine the resource to a potentially  economic
minimum threshold."


Contacts:


Ariana Resources plc               Tel: [phone]
Michael Spriggs, Chairman
Kerim Sener, Managing Director

Beaumont Cornish Limited           Tel: [phone]
Roland Cornish

Lothbury Financial                 Tel: [phone]
Michael Padley / Louise Davis

Loeb Aron & Company Ltd            Tel: [phone]
Peter Freeman / Frank Lucas

Alexander David Securities Limited Tel: [phone]
Nick Bealer / David Scott



Testwork Summary

Metallurgical testwork  was undertaken  on two  composite samples  of
mineralised material sent to the SGS Lakefield laboratory in  Canada.
 The purpose of the testwork was to determine, via several simulation
tests, the amenability of the Tavsan 'ore' to heap-leach  processing,
which  is  commonly  the  only  metallurgical  route  acceptable  for
low-grade gold deposits.

The samples selected for testwork were collected from drill-chippings
from the Main  Zone of the  Tavsan prospect and  represent high-  and
average-grade mineralisation  types (Table  1).  The  gold grades  of
these two composite samples are within the range of grades determined
by the 43-101  compliant mineral resource  estimate announced by  the
previous operator.  Both  samples showed very  low total sulphide  in
the range of  0.06-0.10% S  and low base  metal concentrations.   The
high-grade composite sample contained 1.10% Sb, due to the occurrence
of visible  stibnite and  stibiconite in  parts of  the deposit.   In
contrast, the average grade composite contained 0.09% Sb.

Coarse bottle-roll tests at minus ¿  inch and minus 10 mesh  particle
size were performed to  determine the amenability  of the samples  to
heap-leaching (Table 1).  The simulation  tests at minus ¿ inch  mesh
resulted in gold recoveries of 75% to 88% and silver recoveries of up
to 28% to  37% over a  period of 14  days.  The gold  content of  the
residues from  tests conducted  on  the minus  ¿ inch  mesh  material
ranged from  0.17  g/t  Au  to  1.07 g/t  Au  for  the  average-  and
high-grade samples respectively.  The recovery of gold from the minus
10 mesh material was not dissimilar to that at minus ¿ inch mesh  and
hence  the  coarser  minus  ¿  inch  material  was  chosen  for   the
column-leach testwork.

Column-leach tests at minus ¿ inch were performed to provide a better
proxy for  the  heap-leach processing  route  (Table 1).   The  tests
resulted in gold recoveries of 67% to 80% and silver recoveries of up
to 22% to  26% over a  period of 77  days.  The gold  content of  the
residues ranged from 0.26 g/t Au to 1.33 g/t Au for the average-  and
high-grade  samples   respectively.    The  relatively   low   silver
recoveries are not considered problematic as the silver grades in the
resource are low and  add little value to  the deposit.  The  average
grade ore, approximately 1.3 g/t Au, responds most efficiently to the
heap-leach processing  method  possibly  due to  the  lower  antimony
content of this  material.  The consumption  of reagents in  solution
was moderate.

SGS Lakefield concluded:

"These ores  responded well  to  the column  simulated  heap-leaching
process."

Table 1:  Summary of results of the metallurgical testwork on  Tavsan
mineralisation.


+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                          |     Heap-leach      |     Heap-leach      |    Column-leach     |
|                          |     Simulation1     |     Simulation2     |      Testwork3      |
|--------------------------+---------------------+---------------------+---------------------|
|         | Gold  | Silver |    Au    |    Ag    |    Au    |    Ag    |    Au    |    Ag    |
| Sample  | (g/t) | (g/t)  | Recovery | Recovery | Recovery | Recovery | Recovery | Recovery |
|         |       |        |   (%)    |   (%)    |   (%)    |   (%)    |   (%)    |   (%)    |
|---------+-------+--------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------|
| Average | 1.29  |  4.70  |   83.8   |   39.0   |   87.7   |   37.0   |   79.5   |   25.9   |
|  Grade  |       |        |          |          |          |          |          |          |
|---------+-------+--------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------|
|  High   | 4.02  |  3.90  |   78.5   |   36.2   |   75.1   |   27.8   |   67.4   |   21.5   |
|  Grade  |       |        |          |          |          |          |          |          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+


1) Heap-leach simulation (coarse bottle-roll tests) on minus 10  mesh
material over 14 days.
2) Heap-leach simulation (coarse bottle-roll  tests) on minus ¿  inch
mesh material over 14 days.
3) Column-leach testwork results for minus ¿ inch mesh material  over
77 days.


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 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  Joint Venture  with  European
Goldfields Limited in north-eastern Turkey.

The Company's  flagship  assets  are its  Sindirgi  and  Tavsan  gold
projects.  Both projects  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.

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 at www.arianaresources.com.

Ends

---END OF MESSAGE---