Significant Gold Target at Kepez West

1 December 2014
AIM: AAU

SIGNIFICANT GOLD TARGET AT KEPEZ WEST

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce a resource target* on a zone of mineralisation delineated at the Kepez West prospect ("Kepez West") following the analysis of geophysical and geochemical data.  Kepez West is one of several highly prospective targets within the Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project ("Red Rabbit"), which is targeted to commence gold production in 2015.  The Company holds a 73.5% interest in Red Rabbit in joint venture with Proccea Construction.

Highlights:

• Resource target of 100,000 oz gold* established over a 1,800m x 200m zone across Kepez West and Far West.

• Drilling planned to test the potential of the area to host open-pittable gold resources.

• Previous drilling at the eastern-end of Kepez West provided an intercept of 9.6m @ 3 g/t Au + 119 Ag g/t from near surface.

• Significant gold anomalism occupies a distinct ENE-oriented geophysical trend that coincides precisely with a corridor of intense alteration.

• IP/Resistivity geophysics reinforces the potential for down-dip continuation of mineralisation, which is partly obscured by thin cover.

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"Our confidence in the Kiziltepe Sector to host additional resources has continued to improve as we have enhanced our understanding of the region and drawn comparisons with analogous deposits worldwide.  Notably, the similarities between Kiziltepe and the Pajingo gold-silver mine in Queensland, Australia, are striking.  Such an example bodes exceptionally well for the future of our Kiziltepe Mine and underpins our logic of fully testing all surrounding prospect areas to better define the scale of the resource potential.

"Our recent exploration efforts have further highlighted the scope for the Kepez West prospect to provide for an enlarged resource base.  This area may host mineralisation of the same style and grade as that at our primary reserve at Arzu South, which is located only 5km away.  Consequently, we have established a resource target at this location of 100,000 oz gold* for exploration planning and will look to prioritise this area for drill-testing.  Confirmation of such a resource would potentially double our mineable resources for the Kiziltepe Sector." 

* The target is an internal management target, which has not been subject to independent verification or reporting under an acceptable AIM Standard and should therefore not be relied upon by investors.

Kepez West Description

Mineralisation at Kepez West occurs within an ENE-trending zone of argillic alteration and silicification associated with low-sulphidation stockwork veins hosted by dacitic volcanic rocks, with higher-grade mineralisation restricted to massive quartz veins which probably occupy E-W trends.  Previous surface sampling in the area has identified several highly anomalous outcrop and float samples including 14.5 g/t Au + 39 g/t Ag, 9.7 g/t Au + 68 g/t Ag, 6.3 g/t Au + 32 g/t Ag, 5.9 g/t Au + 24 g/t Ag and 4.3 g/t Au + 30 g/t Ag (announced 23 September 2013). 

In 2012, limited initial drilling in the area (eight holes totalling 478.3m) returned an intercept of 9.6m @ 3.0 g/t Au + 119 g/t Ag from 2.7m down-hole at the eastern-end of the Kepez West prospect in hole KPZ-D08-12.  Three other holes from the same drilling programme encountered anomalous gold mineralisation (0.4 to 0.8 g/t Au) with silver up to about 12 g/t over greater than 1m intervals, occurring broadly within the same mineralised trend.  Core logging showed that the mineralisation is contained within a 1,800m x 200m fault zone which also displays extensive argillic alteration.  This zone may represent the top of a vein system, which is partly obscured by a relatively thin layer of unconsolidated cover rocks.

The Company has partial IP/Resistivity geophysics coverage over the vein system at Kepez West, in addition to ground magnetics, and these datasets are useful for the definition of drilling targets (Figure 1).  This data was integrated with field mapping and geochemistry datasets and this process has highlighted the potential for the vein system to be more extensive than the area drill-tested to date.  In particular an area to the west of Kepez West (referred to as Kepez Far West) has returned several high-grade rock chip results.  The mineralised and altered zone appears to occupy a broadly ENE and partly arcuate trend, which may be associated with a concentric structure developed on the margin of a possible volcanic caldera. 

Comparison of the current status of the Kepez West prospect area to the status of the Arzu South vein system at Kiziltepe during its earliest stage of exploration highlights several similarities (Figure 1).  The extent, style and grades of the mineralisation and types of alteration are very similar.  In particular, both prospects show a structurally controlled corridor of arsenic (indicating mineralisation) and potassium enrichment and manganese depletion (indicating alteration), which coincides with significant gold and silver anomalism.  Collectively, this suggests that Kepez West holds significant resource potential, and possibly of an order similar to that at Arzu South and North combined (115,000 oz Au). 

The Company is planning further work in this area to better define the limits of the gold mineralisation and to refine the location and orientation of principle mineralised structures.  The high gold grades encountered in places and the scale of the alteration footprint indicates the potential for a significant gold system.  The Company is now planning further exploration and drilling in order to determine the potential of this area to contain an open-pittable gold resource. 

Figure 1: Soil XRF geochemical map of the Kepez West area, showing manganese concentration in ppm, rock-chip gold grades and previous drilling locations.  Superimposed on this map are the major zones of arsenic anomalism.  Note that the zones of manganese depletion coincide with the zones of arsenic anomalism and with areas from which gold and silver bearing quartz veins have been mapped or inferred.  Inset is a map of the Arzu South and Arzu North vein system at Kiziltepe which is rotated to a similar structural orientation as Kepez West for more direct comparison.  The greater detail shown in the XRF geochemical grid at Kiziltepe is due to a much higher sample density at Kiziltepe than at Kepez West. 

Contacts:

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 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 are fully funding all exploration work on the JV properties, while Ariana owns 49%.  The total resource inventory within this JV is 1.09 million ounces of gold.

The Company's flagship assets are its Kiziltepe 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 at the Red Rabbit Project stands at 475,000 ounces of gold equivalent. 

Beaufort Securities Limited and Loeb Aron & Company Ltd. 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