After our last chat with Managing Director Kerim Sener at the beginning of the month, he certainly seemed confident that things were progressing well on all fronts. So most Ariana shareholders were no doubt expecting the next news coming out from the Company would be the JV sign off by the end of Q1 - still 6 weeks away.
In the mean time the market had been drifting, with the share price re-testing last summer's lows. All this in spite off the Company's promotional efforts and ongoing programme of investor presentations. (The next presentation is the Proactive Investors forum on 24th February. Click here for details).
So there's nothing like a nice surprise update to catch the market off guard and remind investors exactly why they are holding Ariana.
So what is today's announcement all about? Well to state the obvious, it demonstrates that solid progress towards the JV continues to be made, and more detail and visibility has been provided regarding all the processes the company is undertaking in this respect.
Worth particular mention are the results of the scoping study, which was based on sn envisaged production rate of 150,000 tonnes of ore per annum over a mine life targeted to be greater than 5 years. The study estimated a project cash cost of between US$350 and US$400 per ounce. Although this is only conceptual, it's a great starting point, and you don't need to be a mathematician to work out that the difference between the current gold price and the project cash costs per ounce would leave a healthy amount of meat on bone for the JV Company. Anyone care to start speculating on annual production targets?
Of course, prospective JV partners Proccea have done all this before. Through their mining services division CH Consultants, they have designed and built gold production plants in Turkey on behalf of Eldorado Gold, Koza Gold, Anatolia Minerals and Eti Gumus; in addition to various other international commissions.
So what can we take from Thursday's update? Well, it not only provides us with some of the finer details of the work management is undertaking in finalising of the JV agreement. It also demonstrated that they look committed to providing the market and shareholders with as…
