REG - Ariana Resources PLC - Hizarliyayla Discovery Drilling

Ariana ResourcesAnnouncement

21/06/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 3624D  Ariana Resources PLC  21 June 2023

21 June 2023

AIM: AAU

HIZARLIYAYLA DISCOVERY DRILLING

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the AIM-listed mineral
exploration and development company with gold mining interests in Europe, is
pleased to announce the initial drilling results from the Hizarliyayla area of
the Salinbas Project. The project is operated via Zenit Madencilik San. ve
Tic. A.S. ("Zenit"), in partnership with Proccea Construction Co. and Ozaltin
Holding A.S. and is 23.5% owned by Ariana.

Highlights:

·      Initial exploration drilling results from Hizarliyayla have
returned anomalous gold, silver and zinc including:

o  23.1m @ 0.34g/t Au + 2.83g/t Ag and 0.13% Zn

o  18.6m @ 0.22g/t Au + 1.18g/t Ag and 0.15% Zn

o  3m @ 0.88g/t Au + 37.97g/t Ag and 2.00% Zn

·    Grade of precious metals broadly increases with the depth of
penetration into the system, suggesting the potential for Hot Maden-type
mineralisation at depths below 600m from surface.

·    2,548m of drilling completed to date with another c.3,000m of
drilling planned.

To read a pdf version of the release, please click here:
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Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"These are an impressive set of initial drilling results from the Hizarliyayla
prospect.  We have long suspected the potential of the Hizarliyayla area,
since it was first systematically mapped by our team in 2017.  Surface
sampling undertaken since that time, including some of the brilliant new
geological work by our team in 2022, continued to reaffirm our view that the
mineralisation and alteration encountered at surface represented a high-level
expression of a substantial hydrothermal system.  Consequently, we recognised
the requirement to undertake deep drilling of this prospect and these initial
results continue to underpin this understanding.

Notably, Hizarliyayla is at an elevation of approximately 1,500m, whereas the
high-grade gold zone of the Hot Maden deposit occurs 8km to the south at an
elevation of about 900m.  Interestingly, the grade of both gold and silver
intercepted in the current drilling has a tendency to increase with depth,
suggesting that the deeper we drill, the better the grade and perhaps
increasing proximity to a high-grade gold zone akin to Hot Maden.  The
elevation difference noted here indicates that we may need to drill holes well
over 600m deep in order to encounter a potential Hot Maden-type discovery.
Despite the mineralised intercepts being typically fairly narrow and deep,
these broader observations regarding the prospectivity make these some of the
most exciting exploration drilling results that we have ever announced."

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations
(EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK MAR").

Drilling Programme

The Hizarliyayla Project is located 9km southwest of the Salinbas Project and
about 8.5km north of the Hot Maden Au-Cu deposit. The area is defined by an
area of approximately 1,500m by 800m of argillic to advanced-argillic
alteration zone with pervasive disseminated pyrite, silica and minor gold from
surface.

 

In 2017 (LSE announcement: 5 September 2017), the Ariana exploration team
completed extensive surface mapping to 1:10,000 scale, pXRF soil, clay, and
rock-chip sampling over the Hizarliyayla Project. This work was followed up in
the Autumn of 2022 with further infill soil sampling, rock sampling for
geochemistry, petrography and multi-sensor sample scanning, detailed
geological, alteration and structural mapping supported by remote sensing
studies; collectively leading to define the type of mineralisation and
alteration zonation at Hizarliyayla. The collective results were used in late
2022 to plan Zenit's maiden diamond drilling programme at Hizarliyayla.

 

The original Hizarliyayla drilling programme consisted of up to 19 planned
holes for approximately 4,000m (Figure 1), however, this is the subject of
ongoing review based on results. Drilling commenced on the project in late
December 2022, and to date, 5 drill holes have been completed for a total of
2,548m. Drilling is expected to continue at Hizarliyayla until mid-2023.

 

 

Figure 1: Map showing the drilling planned at Hizarliyayla, including the
recently completed holes.  Not all planned locations will be possible to
drill during the current programme due to logistical aspects involving the
steep topography.

 

Drill holes HZR001 to HZR005 have now been reviewed and sampled by the onsite
geological team.  The drill core observations have provided very encouraging
results (Figure 2). Results of the geochemical analysis of the first three
drill holes completed include (Table 1):

 

·    HZR003 23.1m @ 0.34g/t Au + 2.83g/t Ag + 0.13% Zn from 182.3 metres

·    HZR002 18.6m @ 0.22g/t Au + 1.18g/t Ag + 0.15% Zn from 187.9 metres

·    HZR001 2.6m @ 0.21g/t Au + 4.45g/t Ag + 0.19% Zn from 253.6 metres

 

The mineralisation intercepted within the first two Hizarliyayla drill holes
appears to represent the intermediate zone (Ag-Pb-Zn±Au) of an intermediate
sulphidation epithermal system. These may be developed peripherally to a
buried porphyry system (Figure 3). Further work is ongoing to better
understand the wide mineralised system, and to ultimately target potential
feeder zones, possibly akin to the Hot Maden copper-gold system (Figure 3).

 

Figure 2: Examples of Hizarliyayla drill core and the similarities to the Hot
Maden style of mineralisation:

A) - An example of banded intermediate sulphidation core from Hot Maden.

B) - Intermediate sulphidation mineralisation from Hizarliyayla, displaying
localised base-metal banding with minor rhodochrosite and disseminated
sulphide matrix.

C) - Base-metal rich sulphidic multi-phased carbonate veins with post-vein
event brecciation.

 Hole ID  From (m)  To (m)  Interval (m)  Au (g/t)  Ag (g/t)  Zn (%)
 HZR001   133.0     134.0   1.0           0.24      2.51      0.04
          253.6     256.2   2.6           0.21      4.45      0.19
 HZR002   70.5      71.5    1.0           0.33      2.31      0.17
          99.4      100.4   1.0           0.25      0.25      0.09
          145.0     146.0   1.0           0.43      3.04      0.08
          168.5     169.5   1.0           0.20      1.05      0.07
          187.9     206.5   18.6          0.22      1.18      0.15
          219.1     222.7   3.6           0.23      0.34      0.11
          268.0     269.8   1.8           0.25      3.24      0.32
          305.4     306.4   1.0           0.24      0.87      0.13
          319.9     322.5   2.6           0.35      12.69     0.22
          358.6     360.5   1.9           0.23      0.93      0.01
 HZR003   22.5      32.5    10.0          0.31      4.87      0.36
          182.3     205.4   23.1          0.34      2.83      0.13
          295.8     296.8   1.0           0.28      2.17      0.32
          333.0     336.0   3.0           0.88      37.97     2.00
          436.9     437.9   1.0           1.08      13.27     0.46

 

Table 1: Significant gold and silver intercepts calculated for all
Hizarliyayla drilling to date, using a 0.2g/t Au minimum cut-off and allowing
for up to 1m internal dilution.

 

Figure 3: Scaled schematic long-section through the Hot Maden, Hizarliyayla
and Ardala/Salinbas areas, identifying the regular spacing of hydrothermal
(potentially porphyry derived) centres.  The potentially most well-preserved
system occurs at Hizarliyayla and future drilling will need to be planned
accordingly.

Sampling and Assaying Procedures

All diamond drill core is currently being processed at the Kiziltepe mine site
and analysed at the Kiziltepe Mine Laboratory ("KML").  Results are assessed
systematically and are grouped according to the project.

 

HQ size drill-core samples from the drilling programme at Hizarliyayla were
cut in half by a diamond saw and sent for analysis in batches in line with the
Company's quality control procedures.  Core recovery for all drilling
conducted at Hizarliyayla during this campaign was 91%, for a total of 1,122
measurements.  A total of 2,938 samples (including 556 QA/QC samples) were
submitted to KML, of which results for 1,596 samples have been received.  The
results for 70 samples (including 6 QA/QC samples) have been received from ALS
Global, Izmir (further samples pending) as an external laboratory check to add
confidence to KML results, particularly during laboratory expansion works.

 

QA/QC sample insertion rates vary depending on the batch size accepted by the
laboratory. Ariana sampling protocol requires insertion of 4 QA/QC samples per
batch including 1 blank, 1 CRM, 1 field duplicate and 1 pulp duplicate to
assess the accuracy and precision of all stages of the sampling and analysis.
During the 2021-2023 drilling, Zenit QA/QC protocol required 1 blank, 1 CRM
and 1 field duplicate and over 10% of samples were analysed at an external
laboratory. The Zenit QA/QC protocol is under review by both Ariana and Zenit
teams following the laboratory upgrade.

 

Between 2020 and 2021, KML underwent an extensive expansion to meet the
significant demands for sample assaying, from both the mining and exploration
teams. This expansion is complete with the onsite laboratory, now housing
seven furnaces, two ICP-OES instruments, two Atomic Absorption spectrometers
(AAS), three drying ovens, three crushers and three pulverisers. The
laboratory upgrades have allowed for a greater sampling throughput (70 samples
per day to 135). The two major upgrades for 2021 included the addition of 1) a
multi-element ICP-OES (Perkin Elmer Avio 550) analyser, and 2) an Elementrac
CS-I sulphur-carbon analyser. The ICP-OES provides the team with a full suite
of elements on selected samples (as opposed to just gold and silver).

 

However, new operating procedures are currently being internally reviewed and
calibrations of the new instruments are being assessed. As part of this, the
laboratory team are sending in excess of 10% of their crushed rejects from
selected drill core samples to ALS Global in Izmir for check assays, with c.9%
of the Salinbas samples also analysed at ALS.  Zenit's internal QA/QC data
and sample duplicates have been reviewed, and are considered approved for
Ariana's reporting purposes.  In addition, since October 2022, KML has been
accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TÜRKAK) with "TS EN ISO/IEC
17025:2017 General Requirements for the Competence of Experimental and
Calibration Laboratory".

 

All samples were assayed for gold using a 30g fire assay.  Multi-element ICP
was used for copper, lead, molybdenum and zinc analyses.  Reviews of the
assay results have determined that all Quality Control and Quality Assurance
samples (blanks, standards and duplicates) passed the required quality control
checks established by the Company, with duplicate samples showing excellent
correlation.  Laboratory sample preparation, assaying procedures and chain of
custody are appropriately controlled.  Zenit maintains an archive of
half-core samples and a photographic record of all cores for future reference.

 

Contacts:

 

 Ariana Resources plc                           Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616
 Michael de Villiers, Chairman
 Kerim Sener, Managing Director
 Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nominated Adviser)   Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
 Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt
 Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker)     Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500
 John Prior / Hugh Rich / Atholl Tweedie
 WHIreland Limited (Joint Broker)               Tel: +44 (0) 207 2201666

 Harry Ansell / Katy Mitchell / George Krokos

 Yellow Jersey PR Limited (Financial PR)        Tel: +44 (0) 7983 521 488
 Dom Barretto / Shivantha Thambirajah /         arianaresources@yellowjerseypr.com (mailto:arianaresources@yellowjerseypr.com)

Bessie Elliot

 

Editors' Note:

 

The information that relates to Exploration Results is based upon information
compiled by Mr Zack van Coller BSc (Hons), Special Projects Geologist, Ariana
Resources plc. Mr van Coller has sufficient experience which is relevant to
the style of mineralisation and type of deposits under consideration and to
the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as
defined by the 2012 edition of the Australasian Code for the Reporting of
Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code). Mr van
Coller has over 10 years of relevant experience in the Technical Assessments
of Mineral Properties. Mr van Coller consents to the inclusion in the report
of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it
appears.

 

The information in this announcement that relates to exploration results is
based on information compiled by Dr. Kerim Sener BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD,
Managing Director of Ariana Resources plc. Dr. Sener is a Fellow of The
Geological Society of London and a Member of The Institute of Materials,
Minerals and Mining and has sufficient experience relevant to the styles of
mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity
that has been undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined by the
2012 edition of the Australasian Code for the Reporting of Exploration
Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code) and under the AIM
Rules - Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies.  Dr. Sener consents to
the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the
form and context in which it appears.

 

About Ariana Resources:

Ariana is an AIM-listed mineral exploration and development company with an
exceptional track-record of creating value for its shareholders through its
interests in active mining projects and investments in exploration companies.
Its current interests include gold production in Turkey and copper-gold
exploration and development projects in Cyprus and Kosovo.

 

The Company holds 23.5% interest in Zenit Madencilik San. ve Tic. A.S. a joint
venture with Ozaltin Holding A.S. and Proccea Construction Co. in Turkey which
contains a depleted total of c. 2.1 million ounces of gold and other metals
(as at February 2022). The joint venture comprises the Kiziltepe Mine and the
Tavsan and Salinbas projects.

 

The Kiziltepe Gold-Silver Mine is located in western Turkey and contains a
depleted JORC Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 222,000 ounces gold
and 3.8 million ounces silver (as at February 2022). The mine has been in
profitable production since 2017 and is expected to produce at a rate of
c.20,000 ounces of gold per annum to at least the mid-2020s. A Net Smelter
Return ("NSR") royalty of 2.5% on production is being paid to Franco-Nevada
Corporation.

 

The Tavsan Gold Mine is located in western Turkey and contains a JORC
Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 307,000 ounces gold and 1.1
million million ounces silver (as at November 2022). Following the approval of
its Environmental Impact Assessment and associated permitting, Tavsan is being
developed as the second gold mining operation in Turkey.  Construction
progress is temporarily suspended pending the outcome of a local court
decision pertaining to the EIA.  A NSR royalty of up to 2% on future
production is payable to Sandstorm Gold.

 

The Salinbas Gold Project is located in north-eastern Turkey and contains a
JORC Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 1.5 million ounces of gold
(as at July 2020). It is located within the multi-million ounce Artvin
Goldfield, which contains the "Hot Gold Corridor" comprising several
significant gold- copper projects including the 4 million ounce Hot Maden
project, which lies 16km to the south of Salinbas. A NSR royalty of up to 2%
on future production is payable to Eldorado Gold Corporation.

 

Ariana owns 100% of Australia-registered Asgard Metals Fund ("Asgard"), as
part of the Company's proprietary Project Catalyst Strategy. The Fund is
focused on investments in high-value potential, discovery-stage mineral
exploration companies located across the Eastern Hemisphere and within easy
reach of Ariana's operational hubs in Australia, Turkey and the UK.

 

Ariana owns 75% of UK-registered Western Tethyan Resources Ltd ("WTR"), which
operates across south-eastern Europe and is based in Pristina, Republic of
Kosovo. The company is targeting its exploration on major copper-gold deposits
across the porphyry-epithermal transition.  WTR is being funded through a
five-year Alliance Agreement with Newmont Corporation (www.newmont.com
(http://www.newmont.com) ) and is separately earning-in to 85% of the Slivova
Gold Project.

 

Ariana owns 58% of UK-registered Venus Minerals Ltd ("Venus") which is focused
on the exploration and development of copper-gold assets in Cyprus which
contain a combined JORC Indicated and Inferred Resource of 17Mt @ 0.45% to
1.10% copper (excluding additional gold, silver and zinc).

 

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited and WH Ireland Limited are 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 (http://www.arianaresources.com) .

 

 

Glossary of Technical Terms:

 

"Ag" chemical symbol for silver;

 

"Au" chemical symbol for gold;

 

"Cu" chemical symbol for copper;

 

"Mo" chemical symbol for molybdenum;

 

"Pb" chemical symbol for lead;

 

"g/t" grams per tonne;

 

"KML" Kiziltepe Mine Laboratory;

 

"m" Metres;

 

"ppm" parts per million;

 

"Zn" chemical symbol for zinc.

 

Ends.

 

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