Placing to raise ?1,000,000

ARIANA RESOURCES plc 

31st March 2010

AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU

PLACING TO RAISE GBP1,000,000

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce the placing of 50,000,000 new Ordinary Shares of 1 pence each with certain institutional investors ("the Placing") at a price of 2 pence per share, raising GBP1,000,000 before expenses.

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"We are delighted with the support from the market for the Company. We are utilising the funds from this Placing to continue our exploration and development work on our existing projects, notably in the Red Rabbit region and the wider WAVE Project Area in western Turkey, and in preparation for the funding of new opportunities which the Company is currently assessing in Turkey. We welcome our new shareholders and look forward to reporting the Company's progress as we continue to accelerate our activities across Turkey".

Details of Placing

The Placing was undertaken for 50,000,000 ordinary shares (the "Placing Shares") of 1 pence each ("Ordinary Shares") at 2 pence per Ordinary Share. The Placing is conditional upon admission to trading on AIM of the new Ordinary Shares. Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the new Ordinary Shares, issued pursuant to the Placing, to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is anticipated that Admission will become effective and dealings will commence on or around Thursday 8th April 2010. The new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu, in all respects, with the existing Ordinary Shares that are currently traded on AIM. Following admission of these shares, there will be a total of 221,103,194 Ordinary Shares in issue.

Contacts:

Editors' note:

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 exploring a portfolio of prospective licences selected on the basis of its in-house geological and remote-sensing database, on its own in western Turkey and in Joint Venture with European Goldfields Limited in north-eastern Turkey.

The Company's flagship assets are its Sindirgi and Tavsan gold projects. Both projects 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, are presently being assessed as to their economic merits. The total resource inventory of the Company stands at 401,000 ounces of gold equivalent.

Loeb Aron & Company Ltd. and Alexander David Securities 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.

Ends