For some,  running a Gold Exploration Company may be easier than for others. However running a gold exploration company that has any chance of success is quite a different matter.

You will always need to articulate your message, have a prospect or two and secure that all important funding.

But to achieve success its more about hard work and how you allocate your resources. So be prepared for a rigorous ongoing exploration programme and a proactive development strategy; namely, identifying an initial gold resource, building on it, driving it up the value curve and then selling the asset or even (heaven forbid!) actually produce your own gold from it!

So running a successful gold exploration company is never going to be a walk in the park and regrettably, for the vast majority of juniors, the only gold they will ever see is when the MD returns from the jewellers with his (or her) new Gold Rolex watch!

Fortunately for Kerim Sener, Managing Director of Ariana Resources (AIM:AAU), that rather broad analogy does not apply - and that's because Ariana have already produced their first gold!

At the November 2009 Mines and Money show in London, I visited the Ariana stand. Kerim, very articulately talked me through the company's activities, its operations and its potential. He then pulled out of his pocket a one-ounce bar of Ariana Resources own gold! This bar was produced during trial mining activities undertaken in 2009.

The Ariana story has been building for some time. The company has diligently focused on a no-fluff approach by steadily building a 400,000 ounce resource base which we outline further below. And not just any old resource base, but one that includes a good slug of JORC compliant "Measured" gold (Measured being the highest level of confidence of the 3 JORC compliant categories).

It also worth noting that in October 2009 Edison Investment Research provided a Gold Report in which they re-ran their analysis to differentiate between Measured, Indicated & Inferred ounces and to define a value for each. It concluded a realistic average value of $380 per ounce to gold ounces in the measured category. Such a valuation would therefore suggest that for measured ounces alone, Ariana could justify a market…

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