www.arianaresources.com
Ariana is an AIM-listed and PLUS-traded gold exploration and development company which aims to develop new gold mines in Turkey. Ariana is lead by an experienced board and is spearheaded by a focused Turkish management team. Current resources stand at approximately 400,000 ounces of gold in western Turkey, with two key projects under development: the high-grade Kiziltepe prospect and the heap-leachable Tavsan prospect. An exploration joint venture with European Goldfields (20% shareholders in Ariana) in northeastern Turkey is focused on the Ardala copper-gold porphyry and surrounding areas. Ariana holds a large and prospective licence portfolio from which a pipeline of new exploration targets is being generated for drill-testing utilizing an ‘in-house’ drilling team. Exploration and development success is being delivered via a strategy which integrates geoscientific knowledge and new technologies to identify and advance prospects for drill-testing. Ariana aims to develop a portfolio of licences in western Turkey which contain an aggregate of one million ounces of gold; a target which it is already on the way to achieving.
Ariana Resources encouraged by gold and copper exploration drilling in Turkey
Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) said that the latest exploration results from projects held in joint venture (JV) with European Goldfields (LON:EGU) provided confidence in the mineral potential of the Artvin area in north-eastern Turkey.
The drilling report was very well received by investors as shares in Ariana rallied 9% in early deals.
Work to date has focused on three targets: the Salinbas gold zone and the Ardala porphyry within the Ariana JV and the Derinkoy gold target in the Aldridge Minerals JV.
Drilling intercepts from Salinbas included 21.5 metres grading 6.63 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold and 42.7 metres grading 2.78 g/t gold.
Mapping and sampling of the Ardala porphyry in 2009 indicated that the mineralisation continues under shallow limestone cover to the south of outcrop previously explored in the early 1990s. Drill testing of this area in 2010 has confirmed this geological model and provided encouraging intercepts.
Drilling on Ardala provided intercepts including 134 metres at 0.19% copper and 0.21 g/t gold and 189.5 metres at 0.17 g/t gold and 0.24% copper.
Ariana said that drilling programmes have been extended and that further exploration is yielding encouraging results.
“The European Goldfields team has been doing a tremendous job in understanding the nature of the mineralisation at Ardala and Salinbas.
"This has helped guide the latest round of exploration drilling across the projects and has led to the identification of zones of wide and high-grade mineralisation at Salinbas and also to the discovery of a mineralised extension of the Ardala porphyry beneath cover," said managing director of Ariana Resources Kerim Sener.
At Derinkoy, two epithermal gold targets identified by soil geochemistry were selected for drill testing.
Drilling has commenced on one of these and results are expected over the next two months.
Ariana also said that work across the Eastern Pontides region continues and targets have been selected for licence selection once the next round of licence auctions commences in early 2011.
