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Ariana Resources (LSE:AAU) , has provided a further update on its recent exploration programme across the Red Rabbit Joint Venture project area in Western Turkey, following on from initial results announced on the 23 September 2013.
Highlights:
-Ten new drill-ready targets defined on well-mineralised veins (rock-chip values typically exceeding 5 g/t Au) at the Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Gold Project.
-Targeting and scouting has identified a further 300 exploration targets within 75km of the planned Kiziltepe mine-site.
-41 targets have been followed-up this summer; work continuing.
-Initial results are highly encouraging, demonstrating potential for mineralised intrusions associated with a large-scale collapsed volcanic caldera, which is contained by the Company licences.
-New high-grade gold-silver and base-metal targets identified in proximity to Kiziltepe Sector licences.
Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director argues that the “recent efforts of the Ariana field team to identify new targets in the vicinity of the planned Kiziltepe mine-site have been very successful and highly encouraging, with 10 new drill-ready targets identified within the Kiziltepe licences alone. This follows from our desire to understand fully the potential of the wider area to yield additional resources, which could in time be fed to the future plant at Kiziltepe. Work to date has highlighted that only 6% of the total vein system mapped in the region corresponds to our open-pit reserve of 1.1Mt @ 3.1 g/t gold and 39.8 g/t silver.
“The team remain busy with target follow-up and will shortly begin testing an exciting new geological model for the region. This model has evolved from the recent mapping programme and builds upon the input of a specialist geological consultant, who identified a ‘magmatic phase’ to the mineralisation at Kiziltepe and related prospects. Follow-up work by the team suggests that the entire vein system is associated with a large-scale collapsed volcanic caldera containing resurgent rhyolitic domes, which are associated with mineralisation. Such calderas are, in places, associated with extensive mineralised systems.
“The Company is now planning to prioritise its exploration to focus on the definition of potentially mineable high-grade resources in the vicinity of the planned Kiziltepe plant. Our aim is to extend the life of mine to Stage 2, increasing our mineable resources beyond eight years.”
The Ariana field team has recently completed a comprehensive targeting and geological mapping study over its licences held within the Sindirgi Gold Corridor and in surrounding areas. The primary objective of the study was to integrate all existing geological mapping data in to a single coherent database, remapping at 1:10,000 scale specific areas as necessary.
A total of 178km2 of new geological mapping was completed over a four-week period. Rock units were classified and typed using geochemical data derived from a field-portable X-Ray Fluorescence (‘XRF’) device.
Utilising the in-house geoscientific databases generated by the company in parallel with interrogation of the Newmont Two-Decade (‘N2D’) database, the Ariana team has generated 310 exploration targets within 75km of the company’s proposed Kiziltepe mine site. Of these, 193 are located within 50km of the proposed mine site and have consequently been designated high-priority targets, from which 10 have been selected as drill-ready due to their close proximity to Kiziltepe and because they are contained by company licences. Having access to the N2D database has been instrumental in saving the company considerable time and costs associated with this targeting work.
Since June, a total of 4,700 new surface samples (rock-chip and soil samples) and field XRF analyses of mineralisation and alteration have been taken and a total of 41 high-priority targets have now been followed-up. In this process, twelve kilometres of new epithermal veins were identified and mapped in the region, with several highly anomalous targets scheduled for further follow-up. Some of these targets returned exceptional rock-chip assay grades of up to 20.8g/t Au + 33.5g/t Ag and 14.45g/t Au + 39.2g/t Ag (announced on the 23 September 2013).
The exploration team is presently developing a new geological model and is defining a strategy to test for a possible buried porphyry system, which has potentially given rise to the mineralisation seen in the region. Geological data collected during the mapping study and new structural interpretations have identified a series of mineralised concentric faults and radial cross-cutting structures, potentially relating to a collapsed volcanic caldera containing resurgent rhyolitic domes which are, in places, host to mineralisation. The cross-cutting structures are particularly significant, as they appear to carry the higher gold grades at several prospects.
Significantly for the new model, the centre of the suggested volcanic caldera displays zones of intensely clay altered dacite containing disseminated low-grade gold mineralisation with associated quartz-barite veinlets of up to 1.16 g/t Au + 2.8 g/t Ag, 0.78 g/t Au + 12.6g/t Ag and 0.35 g/t Au + 1.1 g/t Ag. Ariana will continue to re-assess its databases, in advance of further exploration and geological evaluation over the following months as part of the process of testing this new working hypothesis.
In addition, in the immediate vicinity of the Kiziltepe Sector licences (between 1km and 4km outside licence boundaries), reconnaissance exploration has identified two gold-silver bearing quartz vein zones containing rock-chip grades of 9.55g/t Au + 95.8 g/t Ag, 9.54 g/t Au + 17.6 g/t Ag and 5.75 g/t Au + 18.2 g/t Ag, and 2.15 g/t Au + 59.2 g/t Ag, 1.16 g/t Au + 46.0 g/t Ag and 1.14 g/t Au + 93.6 g/t Ag respectively.
The company has also identified an area containing significant base-metal anomalies. The latter area, though in an early-stage of exploration, displays geochemical signatures and mineralisation styles associated with mineralised porphyries.
