Ariana Resources preparing drilling programme at Ivrindi

Turkey-focussed exploration and development company Ariana Resources announced the results of recent exploration and development work at the Ivrindi Gold Project on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm owned 100% of Ivrindi outside of the Red Rabbit joint venture in western Turkey, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Galata Madencilik.

It said a 1.3km long extension of the mineralised zone at Ivrindi had been identified through soil pXRF analysis.

Gold mineralisation was encountered at surface in the range 2-10 g/t Au, it revealed, and was developed largely within several discrete zones of clay alteration.

A 1,500m reverse circulation drilling programme was now being planned in order to test the full strike-length of the mineralised structure, it explained.

Trial mining had recently produced 8,000 tonnes, with a total of about 13,000 tonnes of gold mineralised material now stockpiled, with future potential to truck that to the Kiziltepe plant.

“The discovery of a new zone of mineralisation outside of the areas previously tested with soil geochemistry or drilling, indicates the potential to grow the resource at Ivrindi substantially,” said managing director Dr Kerim Sener.

“Meanwhile, trial mining at the project undertaken during this summer has been completed and a stockpile is being maintained on site.

“We are very pleased with these recent developments at Ivrindi and we are keen to demonstrate that this resource has the potential to be mined and trucked to the Kiziltepe processing plant in the future.”

Dr Sener reiterated that a drilling programme and metallurgical testwork was being planned in order to de-risk the project even further.

“We fully envisage Ivrindi being developed as a satellite operation during the later stages of mine life at Kiziltepe.”