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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 ¼ 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 ¼ 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 ¼ 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 ¼ inch mesh and hence the coarser minus ¼ inch material was chosen for the column-leach testwork. 

 

Column-leach tests at minus ¼ 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. 

 

 

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 ¼ inch mesh material over 14 days.

3) Column-leach testwork results for minus ¼ inch mesh material over 77 days.

 

 

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.

 

 

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