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From todays RNS and the schematic of Salinbas it it can be seen that Salinbas is a medium grade gold ore body that runs parallel to a moderately steep slope to the top of the slope. The depth is not great and Salinbas appears to be an ore body that will be easily accessible using open cast techniques. It may not be as profitable as Kiziltepe or Tavsan but should still be profitable. I have concerns about Ardala as it is a much lower grade ore body.
Greetings all, I rarely post here these days but was a regular a few years ago.
I read comments below and agree with most people about Turkey. I think it is a decent, supportive jurisdiction for gold exploration and mining. Ariana has proved this already - not sure why this needs to be proven again?
Looking at the lastest and previous drill results from Salinbas/Ardala my thought is that they're OK but it's not exactly Hot Maden is it? (Hot Maden nearology was something which Kerim used to capitalise on).
When I met Zack in 2017(?) Ariana had just completed the aquisition of Salinbas/Ardala and he described the terrain. It is one of the steepest, most mountainous, remote and inaccessible places one could imagine. This is a significant headwind for both exploration and eventual mining/production. I applaud the skill and determination to get drill rigs up there but I can't help thinking the mineralised intercepts thus far do not make a compelling economic story.
At the time of the Ozaltin deal I expressed my disatisfaction at giving away so much of Kiziltepe, Tavsan, etc compared to what we got in return. There were just one or two other dissenters at the time and some hostile characters amongst the majority opinion holders here. It seems that many of the old names are still here.
Tavsan looks like a commendable success but Ariana now owns less than a quarter of it
Western Tethyan would appear to be the next Salinbas. I think this is now the main hope for shareholder value.
GLA
' there is no rush to build Salinbas.'
None what so ever, there is always the nagging feeling we gave away too cheaply though.
Zenit is currently very busy building Tavsan and still prospecting to increase the reserves at the Kiziltepe pits, Tavsan and Salnibas/Ardala.
I think that the success of Kiziltepe is putting back the building of Salinbas.
Salinbas was always meant to become operational after Kiziltepe had finished gold production. I wonder if the plant at Kiziltepe, which is capable of producing up to 25,000 oz of gold a year, was always destined for Salinbas, where it would produce 50% of the output, after it had finished production at Kiziltepe. Why spend more capital than you must?
As Kiziltepe is going to be producing gold for several years longer than anticipated, and Tavsan is coming on stream next year, there is no rush to build Salinbas. Zenit might as well keep prospecting to ensure that the mine, when built, will be as productive and profitable as possible, and then can use the plant from Kiziltepe to minimise capital costs.
Karim being half Turkish helps + our costs are incurred in inflationary Turkey but paid for in hard currency generated by Gold revenue & capital from overseas .I have held for years ,first buy 1p & hope for a rerating based on recent progress
'Latest grades are impressive but how easy is it to do business in Turkey'
A lot easier than a uranium mine in Spain.
They do not get the permitting issues the EU throws up and the Istanbul refinery requires gold to keep the country going.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-31/gold-as-inflationary-hedge-makes-turkey-world-s-biggest-buyer
If ever there was a time to buy a junior in a balanced portfolio there is a lot going for Ariana.
Former
I am not always the most easy going of shareholders but in this instance I will leap to their defence. The commodity mined is traded worldwide in dollars and the company has informed that local currency is only kept sufficient for immediate costs. The Turkish Lira continues to devalue against major currencies providing a measure of immunisation.
What concerns me more is that the history of Salinbas over the last decade has drilling, drilling and more drilling often resulting in 'pleased' RNS results. The presentations that the company releases has implied production from 2026 which clearly is not going to happen. What I as a shareholder wants is a published route to production which they will actually stick to. At the moment apart from the vague throwaway 2026 aspiration we have nothing. I hope someone asks that question at the 'Mines & Money presentation tonight and refuses to be fobbed off by the waffle that often happens,
Latest grades are impressive but how easy is it to do business in Turkey? What political risks does a gold mining company face in a country where inflation is so high?
Welcome any Starvest shareholders to Ariana Resources.
Tomorrow we have a presentation from our CEO Dr. Kerim Señor who will give this in The Hilton next door to "Mines & Money". Go along if you can.,
We are looking at having two gold/silver mines running concurrently (Kiziltepe & Tavsan) from the middle of next year. Whilst we only own 23.5%, the numbers are going to be very positive for AAU with lowest quartile operating costs.
We have a number of other exciting projects at various stages of development and in different jurisdictions to mitigate risk, which the presentation tomorrow will no doubt explain. Look out for Salinbas/Ardale, Hizarliyayla, Kosovo, Project Leopard, Venus Minerals, Asgard etc. Lots to get your teeth into. &
'after 4 years I see no evidence of that acceleration despite AAU relinquishing in excess of 75% of its interest there. '
Pandemic lockdowns, earthquakes and armed conflicts in geopolitcal aligned areas, Ukraine, Syria and now Israel and a Biden Presidency playing turmoil in the world markets.
'An Economic Blunder of Epic Proportions'
https://dailyreckoning.com/the-recipe-for-150-oil/
and expanding,
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/27/russia-ukraine-war-central-bank-reserves-assets-seize-reparations-sanctions/?fbclid=IwAR1nQzp5KlGK1UyX3HNKY44K6vu2vgAH8X1xBDkk8qqxeXZitmK4BXajaBU
How is anyone expecting acceleration when the principle priority is to stay afloat right now with caution which the Ariana board have shown to us. Remember Kosovo is in this geopolitical hot zone too.
If and when the copper story starts to unwind then we should hopefully get a rising tide.
TAVSAN TAVSAN TAVSAN.
Stranger
We don't know one way or the other about any help Ozaltin have provided that but your view is possible. We do know that many supported the 'new' JV because they thought Salinbas/ Ardala would be accelerated by the involvement of Ozaltin - after 4 years I see no evidence of that acceleration despite AAU relinquishing in excess of 75% of its interest there.
As for the dividends paid, I reinvested them in AAU. I expect many LTHs did too. My spreadsheet of AAU dealings (there are many) show that the first dividend was paid when the SP was just under 5p, the second when the SP was just under 4p and the last when the SP was pretty much bang on 3p. So you could say my dividend are worth about 50% of what they were!
@SS we are still in the open innings for AAU, the first batsmen got a century and we are established now, looking forward to batsmen 2, 3 and 4 all hitting a century each.
We need one more bonanza find, will Kosovo step up to the crease?
I suspect that Ozaltin brings more to the table than just enabling the JV to raise debt funding more easily. Ozaltin is a very large Turkish company with good political clout. The debacle over Tavsan when the 'environ mentalists' halted the build probably was sorted more quickly and in Zenits favour because of Ozaltins connections with the government.
Plus we all got our dividend and KS can happily indulge himself in investing in juniors and running their prospecting.
That's what I meant..Ozaltin is not relieving Ariana of development costs at Salinbas other than funding an $8m drilling program per the new JV agreement. With Arianas record.of loan repayments, employment of locals and slow but ultimatelysuccessful mine development, with Turkish citizens in senior positions and with the 50/50 partnership with a Turkish partner (Proccea) well established did AAU really have to give away assets so cheaply just to get access to finance ? I never was, and never will be convinced of that.
When Ariana sold half its share of the JV to Ozaltin one of the advantages was that with Ozaltin on board the JV would be able to raise its own funding for Salinbas. I remember that it was stated that Salinbas would be developed without any recourse to capital from Ariana. The JV will, of course, have to raise debt funding to build Salinbas but with Kiziltepe still producing gold and Tavsan coming on stream I suspect that raising capital for the mine build at Salinbas will not prove difficult.
@SS only a short matter of time until the bitter and miserable one came on here with their negative waves!
its a beautiful morning, ive got all my bedding washed and hanging out on the line and I come onto the forum to read sarcasm from the squeaky garden gate guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH3P-CYilzw
Why will getting Salinbas into production not mean any capital cast to Ariana?
Once again the good news sends the share price down. Kizilcukur will add at least 20,000 oz of highly profitable gold production to the Kiziltepe processing plant, or about an extra $20 million profit for Zenit of which Ariana’s share is about $4.7 million.
The RNS states that production for Kiziltepe will go on to at least the mid 2020’s. Kizilcukur is not going into production for 18 months (mid 2025) and will give at least an extra year’s production. I can see Kiziltepe producing gold until 2027, all the reserves of the pits that feed Kiziltepe are having further drilling programmes and resource upgrades.
Over the next ten years Tavsan will produce a minimum of 300,000 oz of gold with relatively low production costs (profit at least $1,000 per oz) from heap leach and Kiziltepe will probably produce an extra 60,000 oz of gold at a profit of at least $1,000 per oz. This adds up to $360 million profit for the JV of which Ariana’s share will be $85 million.
On top of this Salinbas will, hopefully, have been developed into a profitable mine, at no capital cost to Ariana, Venus will have had its IPO and be producing copper and gold, and some of the other investments may have realised some return to Ariana.
Why is Ariana languishing with a market capitalisation of only £24 million? I guess that investors do not see where the return on their investment is coming from, the worry is that Ariana will keep investing the profit from Zenit into more and more prospecting, where the returns are always in the future. Ariana desperately needs to have a dividend policy that returns some of the profit to the long-suffering investors. Ariana needs to take a leaf out of the playbook of CAML who return a good dividend at the same time as building a war chest to invest in new ventures.
You're not surprised are you John.
Well that went down well.
Woof Woof!
With Kerim & Zack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaxLfAUPkrw
Rob Tyson Interview up
Is it just me, but 1.3% seems a little tight.
Fair enough if we get 100 projects in Africa and across the Tethyan belt paying 1.3% may make me lick my lips in anticipation.
So we are moving into an exploration and royalty/ streaming model which will take time to build up. I do like this idea and I am already invested and have time on my side to sit it out - what could possibly go wrong?
Give the guy a break he might be having problems with his garden gate again!