Ariana Regulatory News (AAU)

2 Feb 2006 07:00

Ariana Resources PLC02 February 2006 02 February 2006AIM: AAU HIGH GRADE INTERSECTS OBTAINED AT KEPEZ GOLD PROSPECT Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration companyfocused exclusively on Turkey, announces the results from initial rock-chipchannel sampling at its 100% owned Kepez gold prospect in Balikesir Province,western Turkey. The results confirm high gold and silver grades, with all fivechannels sampled intersecting significant mineralisation. * Best intersects of 8.68 g/t Au over 16m and 6.28 g/t Au over 11m * Peak grades of 23.5 g/t Au and 99.1 g/t Ag * Kepez prospect hosts over 2.5km of quartz veins mapped by Ariana to date In December a field team from the Company's Turkish operating subsidiary, GalataMadencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. undertook rock-chip channel sampling along a100m section of the Karakaya Vein (KV) at the Kepez gold prospect. The programmewas designed to verify the gold grades and widths at surface indicated byhistorical drill data. Results from the first five channels, measuring up to 16m wide and spacedapproximately 25m apart along the vein, have been received and are presented inTable 1 below. All five channels intersected gold mineralisation with highergrade intercepts of 6.28 g/t over 11m (channel #2) and 8.68 g/t Au over 16m(channel #4). Significantly, channel #4 ended in vein grading above 8 g/t Au ateach end. KV has been mapped for 475m and remains open along the strike. It is consideredto be the source of the recently announced grab sample which assayed 19.66 g/tAu. The presence of broken rock immediately down slope and the logging of'voids' in historic (1992) drill data indicate that artisanal scale mining haspossibly been undertaken on KV. Completion of the channel sampling programme andinvestigation of a significant (1.7km by 1.8km) satellite defined (ASTER)target, located 0.5km south of and potentially associated with KV, will resumein April once recent snow cover has cleared. Steven Poulton, Chief Executive, commented:"The early discovery of such a wide and high grade zone of gold mineralisationat the Kepez prospect is very positive. Over 2.5km of veins have already beenmapped by Ariana to date and further work is required to systematically test thewhole prospect area." Kepez lies only 6.5km northeast of and within the same Operating Licence as theCompany's Kiziltepe prospect, where approximately 20km of veins have been mappedand on which we announced positive results in January. The two prospects ofKepez and Kiziltepe form part of the 224km2 Sindirgi Gold Project, which weacquired from Newmont Mining Corporation in 2005. While at least threeadditional prospect areas remain to be tested by Ariana at Sindirgi, the projectis clearly starting to exhibit many of the hallmarks associated with thepresence of a major gold system." Table 1: KV rock-chip channel sample results Line Intersection Width (m) Gold Grade (g/t Au) Silver Grade (g/t Ag)Number 1 1 3.42 7.00 2 11 6.28 34.39Includes 5 12.25 51.46 3 14 2.43 23.18Includes 5 4.25 38.40 4 16 8.68 58.92Includes 6 11.75 72.93 5 4 1.62 57.53 Notes:No top cut has been applied to assay results.Intersection based on a 0.5 g/t cut off grade. A map detailing all of the results described in this release is available at theCompany's website: www.arianaresources.com. 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: About KepezThe Kepez prospect is located within the same 36km2 ten-year renewable operatinglicence which hosts the Company's Kiziltepe prospect, that forms part of theCompany's 100% owned 224km2 Sindirgi gold project in Balikesir Province, westernTurkey. Sindirgi lies approximately 100km east of the one million ouncevein-hosted Ovacik gold mine and 115km northwest of the five million ounceKisladag gold deposit. Ariana has mapped over 2.5km in strike length of gold-silver bearinglow-sulphidation epithermal quartz veins at Kepez, across an area of at least2km by 1km. Individual veins are exposed for up to 850m and widths vary between1m and 25m. The main vein trends northward, dips to the west at 50 degrees andis hosted along the contact between Miocene age andesitic volcanic rocks andCretaceous ophiolitic units. The majority of exploration work to date at Kepez has focused on the KV vein,where results from drilling by previous owners include intersections of 6.9 g/tover 4m and 2.2 g/t over 1m. Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE & ASX: NEM; TSX:NMC) retains the right to a royalty of up to 2.5% on future gold production fromKepez. Sampling and Assaying ProceduresThe KV programme consisted of the collection of 86 composite rock-chip samplesof 1m in length. Of these, 40 samples returned grades of less than 0.5 g/t Au(46% of the total), 6 samples between 0.5-1 g/t Au (7% of total), 24 between 1-5g/t Au (28% of total) and 16 samples assayed above 5 g/t Au (19% of total), witha peak grade of 23.5 g/t Au. All samples have been prepared by the ALS Chemex preparation facility in Izmirand assayed by fire assay at the ALS Chemex laboratory in Vancouver. Re-assayingof all samples assaying greater than 10 g/t gold has also been completed by ALSChemex. Regular standard and blank samples are being used in the sample sequencein line with the Company's quality control procedures. 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