TIDMAAU
RNS Number : 7913P
Ariana Resources PLC
05 September 2017
5 September 2017
AIM: AAU
EXCITING RESULTS ACROSS HOT GOLD CORRIDOR
Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold
exploration and development company operating in Turkey, is
encouraged to announce the completion of its initial exploration
across the Hot Gold Corridor and within its wholly-owned Salinbas
Gold Project ("Salinbas" or "the Project"). The Hot Gold Corridor
is named after the 4Moz Hot Maden deposit located approximately 4km
south of the Project licences (Figure 1).
Highlights:
-- Several high-priority pXRF geochemical targets identified
which demonstrate potential for further "Salinbas-type" epithermal
mineralisation and/or systems related to copper-gold
porphyries.
-- Ardala North target has been prioritised for immediate work
as it demonstrates significant multi-element anomalism and the
potential for gold-silver mineralisation.
-- Anomalous geochemical results obtained between Hizarliyayla
and Salinbas show potential for additional zones of
mineralisation.
-- Project-scale geological mapping and Phase Two pXRF
geochemical sampling has recently commenced, with several new
target zones now confirmed.
Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:
"These exciting initial results confirm our understanding of the
potential of the Hot Gold Corridor to contain significant gold and
base-metal dominant mineralised systems. In particular, the Ardala
North target, covering an area of 1.5 x 0.5km, now represents one
of the most strongly and consistently anomalous areas for copper,
lead and zinc within the Project, with significant potential for
coincident gold and silver. We have now upgraded the Hizarliyayla
area to a priority exploration target due to multi-element
anomalism representative of high-level epithermal mineralisation,
which in part is capped by limestone units. It is highly
significant that Hizarliyayla is partly hosted within the same
stratigraphic sequence as the 4Moz Hot Maden project roughly 7km to
the south.
Several new targets have already been identified and occur in
the region separating Salinbas from Hizarliyayla, in an area
dominated by limestone units. As we expected, mineralisation has
now been identified in the periphery of these limestones, which
reflects the specific structural setting of the Salinbas orebody.
Consequently, we predict that other "Salinbas-type" deposits will
occur within the region and our exploration strategy will be
expanded and targeted accordingly.
Due to the significance of these results, we have recently
completed a site visit to meet with the team and to plan and
prioritise the next stage of our work. This work is now well
underway and we look forward to providing a flow of updates in the
months ahead."
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
Phase One pXRF Programme
The Company has recently completed a 65km(2) portable X-ray
Fluorescence (pXRF) soil geochemical sampling programme across its
Salinbas Project licences in Artvin Province, northeastern Turkey
(Figure 1). A total of 3,552 pXRF soil samples were collected from
road and track cuttings along over 210km of mapped access routes
within the Ardala, Hizarliyayla and Salinbas licences. The
programme was also designed to complete initial follow-up of
several existing targets defined earlier in the year (see release
of 18 January 2017). In addition, the exploration team explored the
8km gap between the Salinbas and Hizarliyayla prospects.
Soil samples were processed on site and analysed at the
Company's drill-core storage depot located in Ardanuc, a drive of
approximately 45 minutes from the Salinbas deposit. Samples were
analysed in batches of 50 using an Olympus handheld portable XRF
analyser with blank and multi-element standards routinely analysed
every 100 readings. The results highlighted twenty significantly
anomalous areas for further follow-up. Six areas display
geochemical signatures which are anomalous in arsenic (As), copper
(Cu), molybdenum (Mo), sulphur (S) and zinc (Zn). These are
elements typically associated with porphyry-type mineralisation.
The remaining areas are anomalous in antimony (Sb), arsenic (As),
lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), silver (Ag) and zinc, which are elements
commonly associated with epithermal mineralisation.
A target previously identified in the area north of the main
Ardala Porphyry (now referred to as Ardala North), was followed-up
during this programme and returned with 16 significantly anomalous
results elevated in Ag, As, Cu, Pb, S and Zn. Due to the magnitude
of the anomalism and its coherence over an area of 1.5 x 0.5km,
this target has now been classified as highly significant and
prioritised for immediate further work. Early results have shown
that the anomalism relates to several zones of contact
mineralisation occurring between the Ardala Porphyry and overlying
limestone units. Several intensely manganese-rich brecciated
limestone units have also been mapped, which likely relate to
higher-grade gold zones occurring in the Ardala Carapace.
Results over the Hizarliyayla prospect define a 2km(2) area
highly anomalous in As, Cu, S and Zn. Historic rock-chip assay
results in this area also demonstrated consistent gold
mineralisation ranging from 1.36 g/t Au to 0.20 g/t Au for 47
samples. A 0.25km(2) high-temperature kaolinite and alunite
alteration zone is evident from a recent ASTER remote-sensing
study. Significantly the main alteration zone identified by ASTER
at Hizarliyayla has not been tested with drilling and many of the
historic samples relate to pyritic mineralisation in the upper part
and periphery of the system. Also the soil and rock-chip
geochemistry of Hizarliyayla compares well to that occurring at Hot
Maden (7.5km to the south). Such observations make the Hizarliyayla
prospect one of the most significant exploration targets in the
region.
Other anomalies within the licences include Agillar, Derinkoy
North and Hizarliyayla Far East. The Agillar target is located 4km
south of the Salinbas deposit and displays a dominant Cu and Zn
association. The Derinkoy North target is located 2.5km north of
the gold-silver epithermal mineralisation documented at the
Derinkoy prospect. Derinkoy North is associated with a sulphur-rich
kaolinite-illite alteration zone and contains pXRF copper
anomalies. The Hizarliyayla Far East target is primarily anomalous
in copper with sporadic mercury.
Following this pXRF sampling programme, the exploration team is
preparing to follow-up all anomalies while completing detailed
geological mapping across the project area. This mapping will cover
100km(2) and will merge all 1:1,500 prospect-scale geological
mapping across the tenements with 1:10,000 district-scale mapping
in order to compile a single coherent geological dataset. This
dataset will be used along with geochemical and available
geophysical data to define new drilling targets.
Phase Two pXRF Programme
Phase Two pXRF follow-up soil samples are currently being
collected from a gridded area around the Ardala Porphyry. This area
is significant due to the high grades, up to 7.02 g/t Au,
encountered within parts of the alteration zone surrounding the
porphyry. Improving the understanding of the area is also important
to fully establish the distribution of mineralisation within the
structural corridor that links Ardala to Salinbas. Further work is
also being conducted on the south-eastern periphery of the porphyry
which will add confidence to a cluster of six significant and
coherent soil assay samples that range up to 2.1g/t Au, an
important target which remains untested by drilling. Further
gridded pXRF soil sampling will be undertaken across other target
areas as appropriate.
New geological mapping at 1:1,500 scale is also underway across
the project area. This work is leading towards a new understanding
of the structural controls on mineralisation, the ore body position
at Salinbas and its relationship to underlying porphyry intrusions.
Several new targets have already been generated from this detailed
mapping, which will extend south from the Ardala/Salinbas areas and
encompass all other prospects including Hizarliyayla. The
exploration team will be continuing to map and sample throughout
the Hot Gold Corridor for at least the next month.
SEE LINK BELOW FOR: Map of the Salinbas Project area, showing
some of the key geochemical target areas identified by pXRF across
the Hot Gold Corridor, with ASTER remote-sensing data and
topography forming the map base. The coincidence of areas of known
mineralisation and alteration is significant, although several
alteration targets are obscured by forestation.
FIGURE 1
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7913P_-2017-9-4.pdf
Salinbas Project
The Salinbas Project is located in the Pontide Metallogenic
Province in northeastern Turkey and lies approximately 80km
southeast of the coastal city of Hopa and 20km east of Artvin. The
project comprises three notable prospects: Salinbas, Ardala and
Hizarliyayla (Figure 1). The project comprises three licences which
are owned 100% by Ariana through the operating subsidiary, Pontid
Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd. Two of the licences are in process at
the General Directorate of Mining Affairs for conversion to
operational status by early 2018.
Salinbas is the most notable of the prospect areas, having been
identified in 2009 following rock-chip sampling and trenching,
which included 33m at 9.6 g/t Au and 46m at 8.3 g/t Au. Follow-up
drilling identified a gently dipping mineralised body emplaced
along a thrust zone to the east of a series of breccia pipes and
the main body of the Ardala Cu-Au-Mo porphyry. The best intercepts
in initial shallow drilling included 9.5m @ 6.48 g/t Au + 39.4 g/t
Ag, 11.3m @ 4.98 g/t Au + 42.8 g/t Ag and 25m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 7.9
g/t Ag. Best intercepts from further drilling included 31.10m @
1.38g/t Au, 17.90m @ 2.09 g/t Au and 9.20m @ 2.25 g/t Au, with most
mineralised intercepts obtained from less than 70m below surface. A
total of 11,709m drilling for 86 drill holes has been completed on
Salinbas to date and has defined a tabular resource (Table 2) which
dips towards the east at 25 degrees. Substantial vertical relief
exists between the top of the mineralisation at Salinbas Peak
(1,320m above sea level) to the lower limits of the current
resource (780m above sea level) in the vicinity of the Ardala
porphyry.
Table 2: Classified JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate for
Salinbas (dated 1 April 2015). The resource was modelled on the
basis of geology and a lower cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au. Numbers may not
sum due to rounding.
JORC Classification Tonnage Grade Grade Ounces Ounces
(Mt) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Au Ag
--------------------- -------- ---------- ---------- -------- ----------
Indicated 2.29 2.11 11.9 155,500 877,700
--------------------- -------- ---------- ---------- -------- ----------
Inferred 7.67 2.00 9.7 493,300 2,396,400
--------------------- -------- ---------- ---------- -------- ----------
TOTAL 9.96 2.03 10.2 648,900 3,274,200
--------------------- -------- ---------- ---------- -------- ----------
Limited exploration drilling between Salinbas and the Ardala
porphyry to the east has also been conducted. Highly encouraging
results from these holes confirmed the need for further exploration
in this area and suggest the continuity of mineralisation from the
Ardala porphyry in the valley floor to the Salinbas system on the
ridge, representing a vertical distance of 675m and a horizontal
distance of close to 2km. The best recent intercepts from drilling
in the area connecting the Salinbas system to the Ardala system
include 81.5m @ 1.28 g/t Au + 10.5 g/t Ag, 34.5m @ 2.21 g/t Au +
10.7 g/t Ag and 18.2m @ 2.20 g/t Au + 25.6 g/t Ag. Further
establishing the links between these two areas will be an important
objective for future drilling programmes.
A scoping study focused on Salinbas and completed in 2015 (see
announcement on 1 April 2015), demonstrated potential for the
project to yield strong financial returns, with NPV (8%) at
US$108M, pre-tax IRR of 28%, and payback secured within
approximately 3.3 years over the Life of Mine ("LoM") at a gold
price of US$1,250/oz. This demonstrates that a potentially viable
resource development opportunity already exists at Salinbas and
that future exploration work will probably reinforce this view.
The nearby Ardala area hosts a porphyry copper-gold (plus
molybdenum) mineralised system associated with a series of nested
quartz-diorite intrusions of Eocene age within an Upper Cretaceous
volcano-sedimentary sequence. Geological mapping, soil, rock-chip
and drill sample data, and a ground magnetic survey outlined the
mineralised porphyry and in 2013 a JORC Mineral Resource was
established (Table 3). Exposed parts of the porphyry have
dimensions of 600 x 700m and interpretation of magnetic data
suggests further lateral continuity beneath limestone units over an
area of 1,000m x 1,000m in extent. Previous exploration also
focused specifically on the mineralised intrusions, while
surrounding gold-bearing skarns (peak grade 5.16 g/t Au and 0.2% Cu
in rock-chips) and related disseminated mineralisation in the
host-rocks remain largely untested. The best intercepts from recent
drilling in the Ardala area include 119.5m @ 0.71g/t Au + 0.21% Cu
+ 0.01% Mo, 236.3m @ 0.34 g/t Au + 0.06% Cu and 122.9m @ 0.58 g/t
Au + 0.05% Cu, which tested an area of mineralised porphyry and
immediately adjacent limestone. Deeper (>150m) high-grade
intercepts outside of the porphyry at Ardala include 4.2m @ 6.74
g/t Au, 2.8m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 38.96 g/t Ag + 2.56% Zn, 2.0m @ 5.29
g/t Au + 13.5 g/t Ag, indicating the potential for other styles of
higher grade mineralisation sitting adjacent to the porphyry.
Table 3: Classified JORC 2004 Mineral Resource estimate for
Ardala (dated 13 April 2013). Separate resource domains were
established for the Au, Cu and Mo components of the Ardala
porphyry. There is a 95% coincidence of the Au and Cu domains, and
a 40-50% coincidence of the Au and Mo domains.
JORC Classification Tonnage Grade (ppm) Tonnes Ounces Element
(Mt) Metal Metal
--------------------- -------- ------------ ------- -------- --------
4.66 2,175 10,000 Cu
--------------------- -------- ------------ ------- -------- --------
18.00 136 2,400 Mo
-------- ------------ ------- -------- --------
Inferred 16.27 0.60 323,000 Au
--------------------- -------- ------------ ------- -------- --------
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 production. The total resource
inventory at the Red Rabbit Project and wider project area stands
at c. 605,000 ounces of gold equivalent. At Kiziltepe a Net Smelter
Return ("NSR") royalty of up to 2.5% on 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;
"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;
"pXRF" portable X-ray Fluorescence handheld device that uses
X-rays to excite matter at the atomic level. A built in CPU and
display on the back of the unit provide live geochemical results
within seconds for elements ranging from magnesium through to the
heaviest metals such as uranium. A three filter 50 second sample
scan is typical. Taking multiple readings across a sample grid
allows the user to very rapidly build up a geochemical map,
outlining potential pathfinder elements associated with
mineralisation, lithological boundaries and intensity or zoning of
mineralised areas;
"m" Metres;
"oz" Ounces;
"t" Tonnes;
Ends
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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