Ariana Resources PLC Ariana Resources Plc: Kizilcukur Forestry Permit Granted For Production
01 February 2017 - 6:00PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAAU
1 February 2017
AIM: AAU
KIZILCUKUR FORESTRY PERMIT GRANTED FOR PRODUCTION
Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), is pleased to announce
the receipt of an operational forestry permit for the Kizilcukur
Project. Kizilcukur is located outside of the Red Rabbit joint venture
with Proccea Construction Co. and is 100% owned by Ariana. The project
lies 22km to the northeast of the Kiziltepe mine site.
Highlights:
-- Forestry permit granted to enable production from the Kizilcukur
operating licence.
-- Kizilcukur contains a current Mineral Resource of c.308,000 tonnes at
2.11g/t gold + 73.4g/t silver and demonstrates further growth
opportunities.
-- Potential for 18 months of add-on mine life for the Kiziltepe Mine from
three shallow open-pits if Kizilcukur is developed as a satellite mine
site.
-- Mining permit in place until September 2022; a blasting permit will now
be sought to enable trial mining to commence.
-- Ariana retains the option to sell Kizilcukur to its joint venture company
at three times the exploration cost.
Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:
"We are very pleased to have received this forestry permit at this time.
As an integral part of our practical development strategy for our
advanced projects, the Company will now be able to commence trial mining
at the Kizilcukur site during 2017 and enable the stockpiling of
material for future processing at Kiziltepe. This trial mining exercise
will fast-track this project through an internal feasibility study, with
the aim of it becoming a satellite source of high-grade material for the
Kiziltepe operations.
We look forward to providing the market with further updates on
Kizilcukur during 2017 and particularly once we are in a position to
initiate trial production."
Details of the Kizilcukur Project
The Kizilcukur Project consists of one operational licence located in
the Balikesir Province in Western Turkey (coordinates: 626150 m E;
4360440 m N). The property lies 22km to the northeast (straight line)
and 50km by road from the Kiziltepe Sector of the Company's Red Rabbit
Project. A royalty will be payable to Dogu Akdeniz Mineralleri San. ve
Tic. Ltd. of 2% Net Smelter Return on commercial production from the
Project. Ariana has the option to sell the project to Zenit Madencilik
San. ve Tic. A.S. (the operating company for the Kiziltepe Mine) at
three times the exploration cost.
The Project covers an area containing a series of sub-parallel quartz
veins hosted by ophiolitic units that trend northwest and extend for at
least two kilometers. The Main Vein exhibits classic low-sulphidation
epithermal features and attains a maximum true width of 8m. The western
quartz vein extends over a strike length of 820m. Composite rock-chip
sampling of 80m strike along this quartz vein returned encouraging assay
results of 6m at 3.3 g/t gold, 2m at 9.6g/t gold and 1m at 7.2 g/t gold.
The peak rock-chip assay result in this area was 152 g/t gold and 1,320
g/t silver.
A JORC 2012 compliant Mineral Resource estimate has been prepared for
the Kizilcukur Project (Table 1) and Whittle optimization conducted in
2016 has identified the potential for the development of three open pits
at this locality (Figure 1). The Mineral Resource stands at c.308,000
tonnes at 2.11g/t gold + 73.4g/t silver and demonstrates potential for
further growth with additional drilling.
The newly granted forestry permit (Figure 2) will enable trial mining to
commence within the central part of the Zeki Pit. This pit is the
largest and highest grade of the three pits defined following Whittle
optimisation of the Kizilcukur resource. The General Directorate of
Mining Affairs has pre-approved blasting operations on the licence as
part of its Mining Permit (as announced on 18 November 2015) and a
blasting permit will now be sought from local authorities to enable
trial mining to commence in 2017.
Table 1: 2016 Kizilcukur JORC 2012 compliant Mineral Resource estimate,
based on 17 diamond and 26 RC drill holes. Gold equivalent is the sum
of the gold ounces and the gold equivalent ounces of silver based on a
price ratio of 60:1.
Tonnage Grade Au Grade Ag Au equiv.
Classification (t) (g/t) (g/t) Au (oz) Ag (oz) (oz)
INDICATED 71,300 2.33 80.2 5,300 183,900 8,400
INFERRED 236,600 2.04 71.4 15,500 543,200 24,600
GLOBAL 307,900 2.11 73.4 20,800 727,100 33,000
Figure 1: shows three-dimensional model of the Kizilcukur vein system
looking due north, showing the modelled ore zones within Whittle
optimised pit-shells and current drilling.
Link: http://hugin.info/138153/R/2074952/780124.pdf
Figure 2: shows map of the forestry permit within which preliminary
mining operations may begin. The outline of the 2016 Whittle optimised
Zeki Pit is also shown for reference. Selected shallow drilling
intercepts are also shown along with the outline of the current resource
as viewed from above. The mineralised vein dips steeply to the
south-west.
Link: http://hugin.info/138153/R/2074952/780125.pdf
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of
Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
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:
Competent Person
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 Africa, Australia and Europe. 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 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. At Kiziltepe a Net Smelter Return ("NSR") royalty of
up to 2.5% on future production is payable to Franco-Nevada Corporation.
At Tavsan an NSR royalty of up to 2% on future production is payable to
Sandstorm Gold.
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. A NSR royalty of up to 2% on future production is
payable to Eldorado Gold Corporation.
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.
Glossary of Technical Terms:
"Ag" the chemical symbol for silver;
"Au" the chemical symbol for gold;
"cut-off grade" The lowest grade, or quality, of mineralised material
that qualifies as economically mineable and available in a given
deposit. May be defined on the basis of economic evaluation, or on
physical or chemical attributes that define an acceptable product
specification;
"g/t" grams per tonne;
"Indicated resource" a part of a mineral resource for which tonnage,
densities, shape, physical characteristics, grade and mineral content
can be estimated with a reasonable level of confidence. It is based on
exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through
appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits,
workings and drill holes. The locations are too widely or
inappropriately spaced to confirm geological and/or grade continuity but
are spaced closely enough for continuity to be assumed;
"Inferred resource" a part of a mineral resource for which tonnage,
grade and mineral content can be estimated with a low level of
confidence. It is inferred from geological evidence and has assumed, but
not verified, geological and/or grade continuity. It is based on
information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such
as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that may be
limited or of uncertain quality and reliability;
"JORC" the Joint Ore Reserves Committee;
"JORC 2012" is the current edition of the JORC Code, which was published
in 2012. After a transition period, the 2012 Edition came into
mandatory operation in Australasia from 1 December 2013;
"m" Metres;
"oz" Ounces;
"t" Tonnes;
"Whittle" computer software that uses the Lerch-Grossman algorithm,
which is a 3-D algorithm that can be applied to the optimisation of
open-pit mine designs. The purpose of optimisation is to produce the
most cost effective and most profitable open-pit design from a resource
block model.
Ends
Figure 1: http://hugin.info/138153/R/2074952/780124.pdf
Figure 2: http://hugin.info/138153/R/2074952/780125.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
February 01, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
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