Ariana Resources (AAU:AIM)
Completed a resource-focused target generation for the Tavsan Project which is part of the Red Rabbit 50% joint venture with Proccea Construction Co. Sixteen target areas were identified, including the following important drill intercepts: 11m@5.11 g/t Au + 6.83 g/t Ag, 6m@3.37g/t Au + 3.67 g/t Ag and 9m@1.30 g/t Au + 4.32g/t Ag, 20m from surface.
A stockpile of 28,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.41 g/t gold, has been produced at the site through trial mining. The plan for future drilling will be refined, after the company conducts a soil sampling programme in March, using a high-resolution portable X-ray Fluorescent (pXRF) covering 5ooo km2.
Management is targeting a resource of 300,000 oz of gold at Tavsan, of which 200,000 oz would be accessible by open pit mining. This could potentially increase the mine life by another 3 years for a total mine life of 7 years, producing approximately 30,000 oz of gold per annum.
Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented: “At this stage we envisage Tavsan as a semi-autonomous satellite operation to the Kiziltepe Mine within the context of the broader Red Rabbit Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co. Tavsan would share much of the management and operational infrastructure as Kiziltepe yet be developed as a heap-leach operation with possibly only the carbon elution and regeneration, electro-winning and gold room being shared between the two operations. This would require limited additional capital expenditure at Kiziltepe, though substantially less than developing such facilities independently at Tavsan.”
“More work is required at Tavsan before we can refine our models and operational plans, but it is certainly a project deserving of our efforts due to the significant potential uplift in company value that it represents to our shareholders.”