The company has now completed the first of two design stages on the Tailings Storage Facilty (TSF) for the project in Turkey and expects to finish the final study before receiving permits for the facility's construction.

Those permits are expected in the second half of this year.

The firm has also finished its technical report for the waste rock dump design, with final overall storage estimated at 12.3 million tons of waste.

Managing director Kerim Sener said publication of the feasibility study for Red Rabbit remained a key aim for Ariana.

"..This highly encouraging update demonstrates the ongoing progress made towards achieving this goal in the near term," he said.

"In addition to our focus on achieving production from Red Rabbit in the near term, we also continue to broaden the scope and potential of the project through exploration activities aimed at identifying areas in which the current JORC resource of 448,000 ounces gold equivalent could be expanded.

"Following the completion of 2,000m of drilling at the Kiziltepe sector of the Red Rabbit Project, we have now successfully confirmed the presence of continuity between the Arzu North and Arzu South structures," said Sener.

"We will now complete a IP/resistivity survey over a large part of this vein system with the intention of generating targets for future deep drilling to provide further information on the wider resource potential of the Red Rabbit Gold project."

Sener said this exploration work had the potential to provide further considerable upside to the project, which has a current life of mine of eight years targeting average production of 20,000oz of gold equivalent from 2013," he told investors.

Also today, the company said it had continued to acquire strategic freehold land near the planned Arzu South pit through a new subsidiary - known as Camyol.

Around 95 per cent of the freehold land in the Arzu South area now belongs to Camyol, with further acquisitions planned during 2012 in the TSF area and along site access roads, it said.

As at 12.05 pm, the firm's shares stood up 4.35 per cent, at 2.88 pence.

Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) chief Dr Kerim Sener this morning hailed the exploration success of its joint venture in the Artvin region of north-eastern Turkey.

The best intercept from the Salinbas prospect returned 6.48 grams per tonne of gold and 39.4 grams of silver from a 9.5 metre section.

An 11.3 metre section contained 4.98 grams of gold and 42.8 grams of silver, while there were 3.4 grams of gold and 7.9 grams of silver over a 25 metre section.

Ariana said the new drilling has defined a gently dipping mineralised body “emplaced along a thrust zone to the east of a series of breccia pipes”.

Managing director Sener said: "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."