Ariana Resources reports good progress at Red Rabbit

Ariana Resources’ joint venture at the Kiziltepe Mine, on the Red Rabbit Gold-Silver Project in Western Turkey, was said to be progressing well on Thursday, as the firm updated the market on its progress.

Kiziltepe was being advanced towards production through a joint venture with Proccea Construction Company, and targeting production in the second half of 2016.

The AIM-traded company said Proccea was continuing to earn-in on Red Rabbit, having spend a further $2.4m in equity funding during 2015-2016.

Its board confirmed Proccea now owned 42% of the joint venture and was continuing equity funding through the construction stage, formally committing the final $2.1m to earn-in to 50% of the joint venture.

Ariana was also in the process of drawing down a $33m construction finance facility to fund the development of the Kiziltepe Mine.

"Following our joint venture meeting in Ankara recently, we have now arrived on site with our partners to review developments at our Kiziltepe Mine,” said Ariana Resources managing director Dr Kerim Sener.

“Our joint venture company has been demonstrating excellent progress on the construction of the Kiziltepe Mine since site works commenced in September 2015. We are looking forward to providing further updates in due course and over the coming months,” Sener added.