29th May 2014 10:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ariana Resources PLC Thursday said it has defined drilling targets on two separate gold-silver prospects within the Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project Area in western Turkey.
The Anglo-Turkish gold exploration and mine development company said it has decided on the Kizilcukur and Karakavak sites for a 2,000 metre reverse circulation drilling programme, which is now being prepared to start in the third quarter.
The company achieved strong grades from recent in-fill composite rock-chip sampling at its Kizilcukur region of up to 32.4 grams per tonne of gold and 144 grams per tonne of silver and previous sampling at the Karakavak region of the site have reported grades of up to 20.8 grams per tonne of gold and 34 grams per tonne of silver.
The Kizilcukur prospect has a current inferred JORC resource of 162,000 tonnes of ore at 2.39 grams per tonne of gold and 48.5 grams per tonne of silver based on historic drilling while a larger estimate of the Karakavak prospect's resource has yet to be defined.
Ariana Resources said all of the necessary forestry permits have been received for the two sites and it sees significant scope to define new high-grade open-pittable resources at both locations and further enhance the project economics of the entire Red Rabbit Gold-Silver Project.
"With both prospects being located less than 25 kilometres from the initial mine, both Karakavak and Kizilcukur represent high priority targets for drilling and underpin Red Rabbit's significant potential to host multiple open-pit mines within truckable distance to the planned processing plant," Managing Director Kerim Sener said in a statement.
First production at the Kiziltepe area is targeted for during the first half of 2015 following a two-stage drilling programme to focus on the two prospects.
Ariana Resources shares were up 4.6% to 0.811 pence on Thursday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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