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AAU.GB Ariana Resources Plc

2.25
0.00 (0.00%)
28 Mar 2024 - Closed
Realtime Data
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Ariana Resources Plc AQSE:AAU.GB Aquis Stock Exchange Ordinary Share GB00B085SD50
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  0.00 0.00% 2.25 2.10 2.40 2.25 2.25 2.25 0.00 06:57:51
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
0 0 N/A 0

Ariana Resources PLC Ariana Resources Plc : 100% Acquisition Of Salinbas Gold Project

21/12/2016 7:01am

UK Regulatory


 
TIDMAAU 
 
   21 December 2016 
 
   AIM: AAU 
 
   100% ACQUISITION OF 1Moz SALINBAS GOLD PROJECT FROM ELDORADO 
 
   Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration 
and development company operating in Turkey, is pleased to announce the 
100% acquisition of the Salinbas Gold Project* ("Salinbas" or "the 
Project") from Eldorado Gold (Netherlands) BV, a subsidiary of Eldorado 
Gold Corporation ("Eldorado Sub").  Salinbas had been part of a 49:51 
Joint Venture ("JV") with Eldorado Sub since 2012 and previously with 
European Goldfields Limited from 2008 prior to their acquisition by 
Eldorado. 
 
   Highlights: 
 
 
   -- Salinbas Project is located within a multi-million ounce goldfield 
      containing several significant gold-copper projects, notably the adjacent 
      Hot Maden project. 
 
   -- Ariana 100% owner of Salinbas following a Net Smelter Return ("NSR") 
      royalty of up to 2% on future production being granted to Eldorado Sub. 
 
   -- Company considering a focused work programme on Salinbas during 2017 to 
      identify potential resource extensions and consider routes to 
      commercialise the project. 
 
   -- Project area includes the Salinbas Au-Ag deposit, the Ardala Cu-Au-Mo 
      porphyry and the Hizarliyayla Au-Ag system. 
 
   -- Salinbas contains an approximately 10Mt Indicated and Inferred JORC 
      resource, with an average grade of 2.0 g/t Au and 10.2 g/t Ag (for 
      650,000 oz gold and 3.2Moz of silver). 
 
   -- Scoping-study completed on Salinbas demonstrated potential for production 
      of approximately 50,000 ounces of gold and 100,000 ounces of silver per 
      annum over 10 years, providing an NPV(8%) in excess of US$100 million. 
 
   -- Ardala contains an approximately 16Mt Inferred JORC gold resource with a 
      grade of 0.6 g/t Au (for 323,000 oz gold), also containing copper (up to 
      0.2%) and molybdenum (up to 0.01%) domains. 
 
 
   Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented: 
 
   "Completing this transaction with Eldorado on the Salinbas Project comes 
at a significant time in the evolution of the Company.  With the 
Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project due to enter production 
shortly, we are keen to enhance our project pipeline and to demonstrate 
a pathway to increased downstream production capacity.  The Salinbas 
Project represents a major opportunity for the future growth of Ariana, 
coming with approximately 1Moz in JORC Indicated and Inferred resources 
in its own right and in a region with significant exploration upside, as 
underscored by the recent discovery of the approximately 4Moz Hot Maden 
project just 16 kilometres to the south. 
 
   We look forward to providing further updates on the project and towards 
enhancing its value in what is proving to be a multi-million ounce 
goldfield and one of the most prospective areas for new gold exploration 
in Turkey." 
 
   Figure 1 which can be accessed from the link at the bottom of this 
announcement: Map of the Salinbas project area showing the location of 
major prospects, related alteration and mapped intrusions.  Most of the 
gold prospects, including Salinbas, lie within the Hot Gold Corridor. 
 
   This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of 
Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014. 
 
   Salinbas Project 
 
   The Salinbas Project is located in the Pontide Metallogenic Province in 
northeastern Turkey and lies approximately 80km southeast of the coastal 
city of Hopa and 20km east of Artvin. The project comprises three 
notable prospects: Salinbas, Ardala and Hizarliyayla.  The project 
comprises three licences which are owned 100% by the operating 
subsidiary, Pontid Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd.  Two of the licences are 
in process at the General Directorate of Mining Affairs for conversion 
to operational status. 
 
   Salinbas is the most notable of the prospect areas, having been 
identified in 2009 following rock-chip sampling and trenching, which 
included 33m at 9.6 g/t Au and 46m at 8.3 g/t Au.  Follow-up drilling 
identified a gently dipping mineralised body emplaced along a thrust 
zone to the east of a series of breccia pipes and the main body of the 
Ardala Cu-Au-Mo porphyry.  The best intercepts in initial shallow 
drilling included 9.5m @ 6.48 g/t Au + 39.4 g/t Ag, 11.3m @ 4.98 g/t Au 
+ 42.8 g/t Ag and 25m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 7.9 g/t Ag.  Best intercepts from 
further drilling included 31.10m @ 1.38g/t Au, 17.90m @ 2.09 g/t Au and 
9.20m @ 2.25 g/t Au, with most mineralised intercepts obtained from less 
than 70m below surface.  A total of 11,709m drilling for 86 drill holes 
has been completed on Salinbas to date and has defined a tabular 
resource (Table 1) which dips towards the east at 25 degrees. 
Substantial vertical relief exists between the top of the mineralisation 
at Salinbas Peak (1,320m above sea level) to the lower limits of the 
current resource (780m above sea level) in the vicinity of the Ardala 
porphyry. 
 
   Table 1:  Classified JORC Mineral Resource estimate for Salinbas (dated 
1 April 2015). The resource was modelled on the basis of geology and a 
lower cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au.  Numbers may not sum due to rounding. 
 
 
 
 
     JORC                       Grade Au      Grade Ag 
Classification   Tonnage (Mt)     (g/t)        (g/t)      Ounces Au  Ounces Ag 
   Indicated             2.29         2.11          11.9    155,500    877,700 
   Inferred              7.67         2.00           9.7    493,300  2,396,400 
     TOTAL               9.96         2.03          10.2    648,900  3,274,200 
 
 
 
   Limited exploration drilling between Salinbas and the Ardala porphyry to 
the east has also been conducted.  Highly encouraging results from these 
holes confirmed the need for further exploration in this area and 
suggest the continuity of mineralisation from the Ardala porphyry in the 
valley floor to the Salinbas system on the ridge, representing a 
vertical distance of 675m and a horizontal distance of close to 2km. 
The best recent intercepts from drilling in the area connecting the 
Salinbas system to the Ardala system include 81.5m @ 1.28 g/t Au + 10.5 
g/t Ag, 34.5m @ 2.21 g/t Au + 10.7 g/t Ag and 18.2m @ 2.20 g/t Au + 25.6 
g/t Ag.  Further establishing the links between these two areas will be 
an important objective for future drilling programmes. 
 
   A scoping study focused on Salinbas and completed in 2015 (see 
announcement on 1 April 2015), demonstrated potential for the project to 
yield strong financial returns, with NPV (8%) at US$108M, pre-tax IRR of 
28%, and payback secured within approximately 3.3 years over the Life of 
Mine ("LoM") at a gold price of US$1,250/oz.  This demonstrates that a 
potentially viable resource development opportunity already exists at 
Salinbas and that future exploration work will probably reinforce this 
view. 
 
   The nearby Ardala area hosts a porphyry copper-gold (plus molybdenum) 
mineralised system associated with a series of nested quartz-diorite 
intrusions of Eocene age within an Upper Cretaceous volcano-sedimentary 
sequence. Geological mapping, soil, rock-chip and drill sample data, and 
a ground magnetic survey outlined the mineralised porphyry and in 2013 a 
JORC Mineral Resource was established (Table 2).  Exposed parts of the 
porphyry have dimensions of 600 x 700m and interpretation of magnetic 
data suggests further lateral continuity beneath limestone units over an 
area of 1,000m x 1,000m in extent.  Previous exploration also focused 
specifically on the mineralised intrusions, while surrounding 
gold-bearing skarns (peak grade 5.16 g/t Au and 0.2% Cu in rock-chips) 
and related disseminated mineralisation in the host-rocks remain largely 
untested.  The best intercepts from recent drilling in the Ardala area 
include 119.5m @ 0.71g/t Au + 0.21% Cu + 0.01% Mo, 236.3m @ 0.34 g/t Au 
+ 0.06% Cu and 122.9m @ 0.58 g/t Au + 0.05% Cu, which tested an area of 
mineralised porphyry and immediately adjacent limestone.  Deeper (>150m) 
high-grade intercepts outside of the porphyry at Ardala include 4.2m @ 
6.74 g/t Au, 2.8m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 38.96 g/t Ag + 2.56% Zn, 2.0m @ 5.29 
g/t Au + 13.5 g/t Ag, indicating the potential for other styles of 
higher grade mineralisation sitting adjacent to the porphyry. 
 
   Table 2: Classified JORC Mineral Resource estimate for Ardala (dated 13 
April 2013).  Separate resource domains were established for the Au, Cu 
and Mo components of the Ardala porphyry.  There is a 95% coincidence of 
the Au and Cu domains, and a 40-50% coincidence of the Au and Mo 
domains. 
 
 
 
 
 
                     Tonnage 
JORC Classification    (Mt)   Grade (ppm)  Tonnes Metal  Ounces Metal  Element 
 
 Inferred               4.66        2,175        10,000                     Cu 
                       18.00          136         2,400                     Mo 
                       16.27         0.60                     323,000       Au 
 
 
   Summary of Agreement 
 
   Ariana has acquired the 51% of Greater Pontides Exploration BV ("GPE") 
previously held by Eldorado Sub in exchange for a nominal cash 
consideration and a NSR royalty of up to 2% being granted to Eldorado 
Sub and resulting in Ariana holding 100% interest through its subsidiary 
Ariana Exploration and Development Limited.  Eldorado Sub has provided 
certain limited commercial warranties as part of the transaction. 
 
   The licences are held by Pontid Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. ("Pontid"), 
a 100% owned subsidiary of GPE.  Ariana is acquiring Pontid with its 
management team intact and with US$40,000 in cash at bank, which will 
increase to US$60,000 on the related sale of certain fixtures and 
equipment to Eldorado. 
 
   Separate to the arrangement with Eldorado Sub, advance royalty payments 
of US$7,000 per annum will be made to the original owner of the Ardala 
licence for as long as Ariana holds the licence, in addition to which a 
1.5% NSR will be payable in the event that the project enters 
production.  The Eldorado royalty on this licence will be 0.5% NSR, to 
ensure the maximum royalty paid on any licence in the project will be no 
more than 2% NSR. 
 
   Greater Pontides Exploration BV ("GPE") 
 
   GPE was created in the Netherlands. This company, along with its wholly 
owned subsidiary - Pontid Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd., a private 
company incorporated in Turkey - was established originally with 
European Goldfields Limited as part of the agreement on the Artvin 
Project. European Goldfields Limited was acquired by Eldorado Gold 
Corporation in 2012. Prior to the acquisition as detailed above, Ariana 
Exploration and Development Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of the 
Ariana Group held 49% of the ordinary shares and Eldorado Gold 
Corporation, the other party to the agreement, held the remaining 51% of 
the ordinary shares. GPE was therefore treated in the Ariana Audited 
Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015 as an Associate investment 
with a carrying value (together with GPE's subsidiaries) at that date of 
GBPnil. 
 
   The reported loss of GPE in its unaudited company financial statements 
for the year ended 31 December 2015, amounted to US$17,965 and as at 
that date it had total assets of US$8,727,148. 
 
   Contacts: 
 
 
 
 
Ariana Resources plc             Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616 
Michael de Villiers, Chairman 
Kerim Sener, Managing Director 
 
Beaumont Cornish Limited         Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 
Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt 
 
Beaufort Securities Limited      Tel: +44 (0) 20 7382 8300 
Jon Belliss 
 
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited      Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500 
Adam James / Tom Salvesen 
 
 
 
   Editors' Note: 
 
   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 originally selected on 
the basis of its in-house geological and remote-sensing database. 
 
   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, form 
part of a 50:50 Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co.  The 
Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project is fully-permitted and is 
currently in construction.  The total resource inventory at the Red 
Rabbit Project and wider project area stands at c. 525,000 ounces of 
gold equivalent. 
 
   In north-eastern Turkey, Ariana owns 100% of the Salinbas Gold Project, 
comprising the Salinbas gold-silver deposit and the Ardala 
copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry among other prospects.  The total 
resource inventory of the Salinbas project area is c. 1 million ounces 
of gold equivalent. 
 
   Beaufort Securities Limited and Panmure Gordon (UK) 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 
 
   FIGURE 1: http://hugin.info/138153/R/2066880/776020.pdf 
 
   This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf 
of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients. 
 
   The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely 
responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information 
contained therein. 
 
   Source: Ariana Resources plc via Globenewswire 
 
 
  http://www.arianaresources.com/s/Home.asp 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 21, 2016 02:01 ET (07:01 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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