Ariana Regulatory News (AAU)

16 Feb 2006 07:01

Ariana Resources PLC16 February 2006 16 February 2006AIM: AAU FURTHER POSITIVE RESULTS FROM LATEST EXPLORATION Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration companyfocused exclusively on Turkey, announces positive results from its generativeexploration programme on the Company's Kosedere and Cinarpinar licences inCanakkale Province, western Turkey. These licences lie 165km to the west ofAriana's Sindirgi licence area, where the Company recently announced encouragingrock-chip channel sample gold values on its Kepez prospect. In this latestprogramme, reconnaissance samples of rock 'float' collected from streams havereturned grades of up to 6 g/t gold, and elsewhere anomalous copper and otherbase metal mineralisation has been identified. * Series of stream quartz 'float' samples return 6.1 g/t Au, 4.0 g/t Au and 2.2 g/t Au * Reconnaissance rock chip samples of 0.19% Copper and 0.25% Zinc * 57km2 exploration area targeted by the Company's remote sensing programme Between December and January, a field team from the Company's Turkish operatingsubsidiary, Galata Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti., undertook reconnaissanceexploration on two 100% owned contiguous licences at Kosedere and Cinarpinar(57km2) in Canakkale Province, western Turkey. The licence areas were selectedon the basis of their geological prospectivity and co-incident kaolinite andalunite signatures, minerals whose presence are indicative of epithermal orporphyry related mineralised systems, as determined by the Company'sremote-sensing study. The reconnaissance exploration programme consisted ofgeological mapping, stream-sediment, rock-chip and soil sampling, in order toprioritise areas for detailed follow-up. A map detailing the results describedin this release is available at the Company's website: www.arianaresources.com. Quartz vein 'float' samples, collected from stream beds in the north easternpart of the Cinarpinar licence, showed a variety of textures indicative ofepithermal gold mineralisation systems including colloform to crustiformvarieties. These samples returned peak gold values of 6.1 g/t Au, 4.0 g/t Au and2.2 g/t Au. In the western part of the Kosedere licence, prospecting hasidentified significant base metal anomalies, with peak results of 343 ppm copperand 699 ppm zinc in soil samples, in addition to values of 1,865 ppm copper(0.19% Cu) and 2,510 ppm zinc (0.25 % Zn) in rock-chip samples. Steven Poulton, Chief Executive, commented:"We are pleased to report further grassroots success from our continuinggenerative exploration programme. The discovery of high gold grades in quartzfloat samples, potentially derived from within our licence areas, as well as theidentification of anomalous copper, lead and zinc, suggests the presence of asignificant mineralised system. Yet again, this provides a powerfuldemonstration of the capability of our modern exploration approach. "In line with our growth strategy, and to accelerate exploration across ourportfolio of properties, we have recently doubled the size of our explorationteam, which now includes eight Turkish geologists." Contacts:Ariana Resources plcSteven Poulton, Chief Executive Tel: 01235 511 767s.j.poulton@arianaresources.com Mobile: 0797 408 6712 Bankside ConsultantsMichael Padley / Susan Scott Tel: 020 7367 8888 Editors' note: Sampling and Assaying ProceduresA total of 123 '-80 mesh' stream-sediment, 51 rock-chip, and 30 soil sampleswere collected. All samples have been prepared by the ALS Chemex preparationfacility in Izmir and assayed by fire assay and ICP-MS at the ALS Chemexlaboratory in Vancouver. Dr Kerim Sener, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, is Ariana's Exploration Director. Agraduate of the University of Southampton in Geology, he also holds a Master'sdegree from the Royal School of Mines (Imperial College, London) in MineralExploration and a doctorate from the University of Western Australia. He is aFellow of The Geological Society of London and has worked in geological researchand mineral consultancy in Southern Africa and the Northern Territory ofAustralia. He has read and approved the technical disclosure in this regulatoryannouncement. About Ariana ResourcesAriana is a technology-driven exploration company focused on the discovery ofmulti-million ounce potential epithermal gold-silver and porphyry copper-golddeposits within the Tethyan metallogenic belt of Turkey. The Company has aportfolio of prospective licences covering approximately 1,000km2, selected onthe basis of its advanced in-house remote sensing database. Ariana's broker isAmbrian Partners Limited and Beaumont Cornish Limited is the Company's nominatedadviser. For further information on Ariana you are invited to visit the Company's websiteat www.arianaresources.com. Ends This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange