Hot Features
Premium
Register for real-time alerts, custom portfolio, and market movers
Ariana Resources (LSE:AAU) have released JORC Resource Estimate for the Kizilcukur and Ivrindi projects which are 100% held by the company outside of the Red Rabbit Joint Venture in Western Turkey.
Highlights:
-27,600 oz Au equivalent JORC Inferred added to the resource base from two satellite prospects, Kizilcukur and Ivrindi, located in the vicinity of the Red Rabbit Gold Project.
-Total resource base in western Turkey increased to approximately 475,000 oz Au equiv. gross (currently 395,000 oz Au equiv. net to Ariana) in addition to 1.09Moz gross (534,000 oz Au net to Ariana) located within the Company’s JV with Eldorado Gold in north-eastern Turkey.
-Both satellite prospects are located in 10-year operational licences and forestry permits were recently granted for drilling at Kizilcukur.
-Focus of future drilling programmes will be on open-pittable resources capable of being trucked to the planned Kiziltepe plant site.
-Resource drilling plan at Kizilcukur to be executed during mine construction at Kiziltepe.
-Trial mining of 550 tonnes at Ivrindi was concluded in September 2013, in accordance with Turkish mining regulations.
Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented that the “additions to our resource base are a significant development for Ariana. Collectively they represent the potential for an additional two years of full-capacity operational life for the planned Kiziltepe plant, which would extend the mine life to a total of 10 years.
“As a first priority we will be planning for further drilling at the Kizilcukur property to elevate those resources to the Indicated and Measured categories. Following this, we will aim to complete scoping studies to determine the economics of these resources being trucked to the Kiziltepe plant site. The Company also retains the option to sell these resources in to the Red Rabbit JV for three times the exploration cost.
“Our total resource base in western Turkey now stands at approximately 475,000 oz Au equivalent gross (currently 395,000 oz Au equivalent net to Ariana) in addition to 1.09Moz Au gross (534,000 oz Au net to Ariana) located within the Company’s JV with Eldorado Gold in north-eastern Turkey.”
Resource Estimate:
The Resource Estimate was based on initial drilling programmes undertaken in 2007 and 2008 at both locations and comprised recent re-logging of old drill core and Reverse Circulation (“RC”) chips retained by the Company, and the establishment of appropriate geological models in both cases. The data from these earlier drilling programmes is continuing to be re-assessed in line with planning for future drilling at both localities. This process of re-assessment has resulted in the calculation of the resources identified here.
Kizilcukur Project:
The Kizilcukur Project is located 65km from the planned Kiziltepe operation by predominantly graded road and forestry tracks. Consequently any potentially open-pittable resources identified at Kizilcukur are likely to be within trucking distance to the plant site at Kiziltepe. A cut-off of 1 g/t Au is considered necessary to account for mining and trucking costs. At Kizilcukur, mineralisation is located primarily within two NW-trending quartz veins. The Mineral Resource has been defined by 17 holes on 12 cross-sections with section spacing ranging from 10-80m. Wireframes were constructed using sectional polylines defined by a cut-off of 0.25 g/t Au, a minimum horizontal width of 2m and with no internal dilution below 0.2 g/t Au. In one case this criteria was relaxed to a minimum horizontal width of 1m to maintain geological continuity. Five separate lodes were created from the sectional interpretation, which are oriented at 315 degrees (NW) and dip steeply at 85 degrees towards the southwest. A top-cut of 15 g/t Au was applied and a bulk density of 2.6 g/cm3 was assumed for the whole resource. Grade interpolation was by the Inverse Distance Squared (“ID2”) method.
Ivrindi Project:
The Ivrindi Project is located 105km from the planned Kiziltepe operation by asphalt road including lengthy sections of dual carriageway. Consequently any potentially open-pittable resources identified at Ivrindi are likely to be within trucking distance to the plant site at Kiziltepe. A cut-off of 1 g/t Au is considered necessary to account for mining and trucking costs. At Ivrindi, mineralisation occurs at the Kinik prospect, which shows a zone of mineralised alteration of volcanic rocks with strike length of 450m, including a poorly mineralised gap of 170m. Mineralisation extends from surface to 70m vertical depth. The Mineral Resource has been defined by 14 holes on 9 cross-sections, with section spacing ranging from 35-90m. Wireframes were constructed using sectional polylines defined by a cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au. The resource comprises five discrete wireframes, which are east-west oriented and steeply north-dipping. A density of 2.5 g/cm3 was assumed for the whole resource. Grade interpolation was by the ID2 method.
