SHARES in British miner Ariana Resources soared recently with the news that the company had identified high grade deposits at its flagship Red Rabbit gold project in western Turkey.
The company discovered four high grade gold-silver zones in the Kepez and Karakavak section of the project, which returned grades of up to 383 grams per tonne of silver and 58g/t of gold.
Ariana managing director Dr Kerim Sener said the current resource was based on only 6 per cent of the total veins mapped, allowing for significant exploration upside.
“These exceptional exploration results reinforce our views on the prospectivity of the wider Kiziltepe area and continue to point towards future resource upside for our planned mine,” he said.
“It is important to note that our feasibility study is based on only 2km of veins out of 34km now mapped, the latest exploration having identified a further 12km of veins beyond that previously known.
“This underpins the potential for further discoveries to be made along the general trend of the Sindirgi gold corridor, much of which the company holds under licence.
“The company remains fully committed to exploring the Kiziltepe sector of the Red Rabbit gold project.
“While we wait for the final environmental approvals for the mine, the company is continuing to evaluate its exploration data and to complete targeted low-cost exploration work to generate new drilling targets for testing during mine construction and start-up in 2014.”
The Red Rabbit gold project is in the same province as the largest operating gold mines in Turkey, with the country itself highly prospective for new porphyry and epithermal deposits.
The open pit mine is expected to produce gold for at least eight years. Ariana is the operator of the project and also owns the Kizilcukur, Demirci and Ivrindi projects.
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