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AAU Ariana Resources Plc

2.60
0.05 (1.96%)
Last Updated: 11:21:07
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Ariana Resources Plc LSE:AAU London Ordinary Share GB00B085SD50 ORD 0.1P
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  0.05 1.96% 2.60 2.50 2.70 2.65 2.55 2.55 824,504 11:21:07
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
Gold Ores 0 4.03M 0.0035 7.43 29.81M

Ariana Resources PLC Letter To Shareholders

22/01/2015 7:55am

UK Regulatory



 
TIDMAAU 
 
   22 January 2015 
 
   AIM: AAU 
 
   LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS 
 
   Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration 
and development company focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce an 
open letter to shareholders, which will be posted today on the Company's 
website at www.arianaresources.com. 
 
   Dear Shareholder, 
 
   As we progress into 2015, I would like to take this opportunity to 
discuss the advances made by the Company towards production in Turkey 
and also to reflect on 2014, which, despite the challenging conditions 
prevailing in the market, was a year of significant development for 
Ariana. 
 
   Amongst the significant milestones achieved during the year were the 
following: 
 
 
   -- EIA approval: By the end of 2013 we had successfully completed the 
      permitting required by the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urban 
      Planning as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") reporting 
      process. 
 
   -- 20-year licence extension:  Successful completion of the EIA enabled us 
      to apply for a 20-year extension to our primary operating licence, which 
      we were granted in April. 
 
   -- Tax incentives:  An application to the Ministry of Economy for a series 
      of tax incentives and other government support mechanisms was also 
      approved in June.  These incentives amount to an immediate US$2.2 million 
      saving over the eight-year life of the mine. 
 
   -- Bank loan for mine construction:  On obtaining these incentives from the 
      Turkish Government, we successfully finalised arrangements with a Turkish 
      bank, Turkiye Finans Katilim Bankasi A.S., to provide a US$33 million 
      debt facility to fund the development of the Kiziltepe mine. 
 
   -- Surface rights obtained: 100% of the land rights were also purchased over 
      our primary Reserve at Kiziltepe 
 
 
   We are now on the cusp of moving into mine construction at Kiziltepe as 
we await the delivery of the final permit for access to government-owned 
land, which in our case relates to an area of forest.  We are also 
mindful of the frustration our shareholders may have felt concerning the 
time taken for this final component to be signed off and for 
construction to commence.  Whilst it has not been easy to estimate 
timescales in this regard, it is important to appreciate that with our 
mine finance facility now in place, such permitting is very much viewed 
as a procedural process, rather than an area of undue uncertainty for 
the Company or its stakeholders. 
 
   In a recent development, we are now most encouraged to begin 2015 in the 
knowledge that several revisions to the Turkish Mining Law have been 
submitted to the Turkish parliament and are currently with the 
Parliamentary Commission.  We expect that these revisions, once accepted, 
will help to catalyse the permitting process for the mining sector in 
the near term. 
 
   Enhancing our Resource Base 
 
   As we move nearer to mine construction and production, we are also 
mindful of the fact that going forward, a key area of value enhancement 
for the Company will be our ability to build on and expand the size and 
scale of the mineable resource at Kiziltepe through our on-going 
exploration in and around the Red Rabbit Project.  The results of these 
efforts to date have been announced during the course of the past year 
and point to considerable additional resource potential.  In particular, 
we see immediate along-strike and down-plunge resource potential at 
Kiziltepe, in addition to resource growth opportunities at several 
prospects such as Kizilcukur and Kepez.  Once the Kiziltepe mine becomes 
operational, we expect to convert this potential into further mineable 
reserves, enhancing mine life as well as the long-term economics of the 
mine.  We have now advanced certain exploration targets in the vicinity 
of Kiziltepe to the point of drill-testing and will be looking to 
progress to the drilling stage. 
 
   Ardala-Salinbas Project Developments 
 
   Outside of our operations in western Turkey we continue to advance our 
exciting Ardala-Salinbas JV project with Eldorado Gold Corp. 
Shareholders will be aware that this joint venture is fully funded by 
Eldorado and whilst Ariana continues to retain a 49% stake in the 
project under the terms of the original JV, we also maintain a 
free-carry to the feasibility study stage.  Over the life of the JV, 
Eldorado has spent approximately $7M for almost 19,000 metres drilled, 
and we have identified a gross Indicated and Inferred JORC resource of 
over 1.1 million oz gold equivalent, with approximately 569,000 of this 
net attributable to Ariana. 
 
   We indicated in November last year that it was our intention to 
explicitly demonstrate the value of this project to the market and we 
have since been working with Eldorado to define several parameters 
required for a scoping level assessment of the project.  Independent 
reviews of geological, metallurgical and mining data were completed and 
the JV is now in the process of compiling this data as part of an 
internal scoping study which will be used to gauge the potential value 
of the project. 
 
   Tigris Resources IPO 
 
   We are also very pleased to see that Tigris Resources Ltd is continuing 
to progress towards an IPO on the TSX-V following a capital pool 
transaction with Kirkcaldy Capital Corp. and an associated fundraising 
of C$1.3 million.  Significantly, this transaction was supported by 
Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd.  Ariana currently holds 1.75 
million shares in Tigris, which will be rebranded as Royal Road Minerals 
Ltd. 
 
   Special Thanks 
 
   On a more personal note, I would like to express my greatest 
appreciation to my father and our founding General Manager in Turkey, 
Erhan Sener, who as of year-end 2014 has retired from a full-time role 
within the Company.  In late 2003, Erhan was instrumental in the 
establishment of Ariana's operations in Turkey; as General Manager he 
brought to bear his considerable experience and expertise of the Turkish 
business sector on the way we managed our operations.  Erhan will now be 
replaced by Fatma Yildiz, who was our licence manager and has a strong 
background in mining engineering.  We welcome Fatma to her new role and 
wish her much success.  Meanwhile, Erhan will continue with the Company 
in a part-time consulting capacity. 
 
   Moving in to 2015 
 
   We are encouraged to note the resilience and renewed strength in the 
gold price of late.  Whilst the gold market and demand for physical gold 
in Turkey has continued to remain robust throughout the down-cycle of 
the last three years, a more positive global gold price environment can 
only enhance overall sector sentiment.  Importantly, production costs in 
Turkey have remained amongst the lowest in the world and the recent 
reduction in energy costs will further reduce operational costs in the 
country.  Considering our Kiziltepe feasibility study was completed at a 
time when a barrel of oil was approximately $100, the current price 
environment, if sustained, will make a considerable positive impact on 
the economics of our operation, which has a current forecast operating 
cost of $600/oz. 
 
   Whilst considerable advances have been made during the course of 2014, 
we are acutely aware that the Company remains valued by the Market at 
approximately GBP5.5 million at the current share price.  In contrast, 
internal estimates of the value of our assets and the resource ounces 
currently attributable to the Company (based on the comparable 
transaction methodology), provides hope that the Market value will 
eventually begin to converge with the combined valuation of our assets, 
as sentiment towards the sector improves once more. 
 
   2015 is set to be a transformational year for Ariana Resources, as we 
move towards mine development, leading to maiden production and revenues 
at Kiziltepe, in addition to the numerous positive developments and 
expected news flow as outlined above.  We believe it would be hard for 
the market to overlook these positive developments and we will ensure 
that the Market is aware of the significance of our news in this regard. 
We look forward to updating shareholders on our developments at this 
exciting time for Ariana. 
 
   Yours faithfully, 
 
   Dr. Kerim Sener 
 
   Managing Director 
 
   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 
Saif Janjua 
 
Loeb Aron & Company Ltd.                 Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 1128 
John Beresford-Peirse / Dr. Frank Lucas 
 
St Brides Partners Limited               Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236 1177 
Susie Geliher / Lottie Brocklehurst 
 
 
 
   Editors' note: 
 
   Dr Kerim Sener, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, is the Managing Director of Ariana 
Resources plc.  A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology, 
he also holds a Master's degree from the Royal School of Mines (Imperial 
College, London) in Mineral Exploration and a doctorate from the 
University of Western Australia.  He is a Fellow of The Geological 
Society of London and has worked in geological research and mineral 
consultancy in Southern Africa and Australia.  He has read and approved 
the technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement. 
 
   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 selected on the basis of 
its in-house geological and remote-sensing database, on its own in 
western Turkey and in Joint Venture with Eldorado Gold Corporation in 
north-eastern Turkey.  Eldorado owns 51% of this joint venture and are 
fully funding all exploration work on the JV properties, while Ariana 
owns 49%.  The total resource inventory within this JV is 1.09 million 
ounces of gold. 
 
   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, are 
presently being assessed as to their economic merits and now form part 
of a Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co.  The total resource 
inventory at the Red Rabbit Project stands at 475,000 ounces of gold 
equivalent. 
 
   Beaufort Securities Limited and Loeb Aron & Company Ltd. 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 
 
   This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on 
behalf of NASDAQ OMX 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 
 
   HUG#1888679 
 
 
  http://www.arianaresources.com/s/Home.asp 
 

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