🕐22.03.12 - 09:27 Uhr

ARIANA RESOURCES PLC - POSITIVE DRILLING RESULTS FROM SALINBAS, TURKEY, UNDERPIN
S CONFIDENCE IN EXPLORATION POTENTIAL



[cid:image001.gif@01CD0803.643C9B30][cid:image002.jpg@01CD0803.643C9B30] 22 March 2012 AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU POSITIVE DRILLING RESULTS FROM SALINBAS Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, announces further drilling results from the 2011 exploration programme undertaken at Salinbas within our Joint Venture project area in the Artvin region of north eastern Turkey. Highlights:
* New drilling has defined a gently dipping mineralised body emplaced along a thrust zone to the east of a series of breccia pipes
* Best intercepts related to the follow-up drilling include: o 9.5m @ 6.48 g/t Au + 39.4 g/t Ag; o 11.3m @ 4.98 g/t Au + 42.8 g/t Ag and, o 25m @ 3.34 g/t Au + 7.9 g/t Ag.
* The drilling to date at Salinbas has outlined a mineralised body of areal extent 300m x 500m, but the mineralisation remains open in several directions
* Resource estimation is in progress and drilling will continue in 2012 Dr.

Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented: "These results underpin our confidence in the exploration potential of our projects in the Artvin region of north eastern Turkey.

The virgin discovery of Salinbas by our JV team was a true exploration success and the prospect continues to yield highly encouraging drilling results.

The fact that the Salinbas system is still open to the south and to the east indicates that there is considerable scope to define a substantial gold system.

The orientation of the mineralisation and the continuity of high grades suggest that the mineralised body will provide for a resource, which could be mined by open-pit methods. "The JV team is currently planning for a further drilling programme scheduled to commence in May 2012.

We have in place an efficient, dedicated team, committed to bringing this programme to a successful conclusion." Exploration Programme Drilling to date has focused on two main areas: the Salinbas gold prospect and the Ardala copper-gold porphyry.

A total of 8,913m of diamond drilling has been completed over these properties.

In addition, regional sampling aimed at selecting other targets for licence applications has also continued across the Pontides region.
Salinbas Exploration Results During late 2010, Ariana announced the first drilling results from the then newly discovered Salinbas high-grade epithermal gold prospect.

Mineralisation is associated with a series of breccias pipes along a structural corridor and the system is interpreted to relate to the Ardala porphyry some 2 kilometres away.

The discovery was revealed in a series of trenches, and a programme extending existing trenches and excavating new ones was carried out in 2010.

The trenches define mineralisation over a total strike length of some 300 metres.

All significant trench results in bedrock to date are summarised in Table 1. Table 1: Trench results for the Salinbas prospect.

Results reported for intercepts >1g/t Au using a 0.5 g/t Au lower cut, no upper cut and up to 10 metres of waste material allowed. Trench ID Meters Grade Au (g/t) Grade Ag (g/t) ST1 32 5.4 7.8 ST2 20 1.2 3.7 ST3 46 8.3 39.0 ST9 4 1.5 1.5 ST10 16 1.3 5.3 ST10 1 1.9 4.3 ST11 5 2.5 18.3 ST11 55 7.8 9.2 ST12 28 1.8 4.0 ST12 8 8.4 13.8 ST13 38 3.7 12.1 ST14 31 1.6 9.4 ST15 27 2.0 10.6 ST20 13.3 1.2 1.3
A follow-up drilling programme commenced on the Salinbas prospect in 2010 and continued during 2011 (Figure 1).

A total of 6,951m has been drilled for a total of 60 drill holes at Salinbas to date.

The results of the 2011 drilling programme are provided in Table 2. [cid:image003.jpg@01CD0803.643C9B30] Figure 1: Map showing drilling at the Salinbas prospect in 2010 and 2011.

Drill holes shown in blue were drilled in 2010 and identified mineralised breccia pipes.

Drill holes shown in red were drilled in 2011 and have defined a moderately southward dipping gold zone along the plane of a thrust fault separating hanging wall volcanic rocks from footwall limestones.
Table 2: New drilling results for the Salinbas prospect.

Results reported for intercepts >1g/t Au using a 0.5 g/t Au lower cut, no upper cut, a 2m minimum composite width and up to 10 metres of waste material allowed. Drillhole ID >From (m) To (m) Length (m) Grade Au (g/t) Grade Ag (g/t) SALH015 No significant intercept SALH016 0 2 2 0.88 2.90 6 15.8 9.8 1.53 3.62 80.5 83 2.5 0.99 3.69 91 95 4 1.22 10.10 SALH017 5.8 20.5 14.7 1.79 35.61 SALH018 27.2 30 2.8 2.97 36.85 SALH019 7 11 4 1.61 2.23 31 33 2 0.65 2.58 35 37 2 0.59 1.49 SALH020 47.9 50.4 2.5 4.10 3.67 SALH021 33 61 28 0.78 3.61 SALH022 0 25 25 3.34 7.85 SALH023 0 11.3 11.3 4.98 42.82 SALH024 0 10.9 10.9 3.80 16.66 SALH025 No significant intercept SALH026 0 4 4 0.87 1.63 13 39 26 1.09 2.63 49.4 58.3 8.9 1.28 1.92 SALH027 No significant intercept SALH028 No significant intercept SALH029 0 4.6 4.6 2.24 20.05 SALH030
27.9 30.8 2.9 1.41 4.27 43 45 2 0.51 2.21 59.6 66 6.4 2.63 7.96 SALH031 0 5.8 5.8 1.02 3.85 SALH032 No significant intercept SALH033 30.8 38.4 7.6 3.45 72.40 SALH034 34.5 42.6 8.1 3.24 45.25 SALH035 52.1 56.9 4.8 4.80 15.67 SALH036 183.7 190 6.3 0.95 10.50 SALH037 No significant intercept SALH038 No significant intercept SALH039 63.5 65.7 2.2 2.37 150.57 SALH040 48 52.1 4.1 1.18 45.91 SALH041 0 2 2 1.15 3.83 24.3 27.2 2.9 1.00 9.57 SALH042 16.9 32.5 15.6 1.47 2.64 SALH043 22.4 26.6 4.2 0.93 2.59 33.8 37.8 4 0.77 3.79 SALH044 No significant intercept SALH045 No significant intercept SALH046 79.5 89 9.5 6.48 39.43 SALH047 No significant intercept SALH048 No significant intercept SALH049 64.7
2.07 20.09 78 80 2 0.59 4.92 SALH050 No significant intercept SALH051 83.5 87.5 4 0.71 10.83 SALH052 101.9 106.3 4.4 1.95 5.47 110 112 2 0.84 2.41 SALH053 50.4 52.8 2.4 2.02 5.21 79 81 2 0.74 1.33 SALH054 70 72.3 2.3 1.17 10.25 SALH055 No significant intercept SALH056 98.2 108.9 10.7 0.86 3.35 SALH057 No significant intercept SALH058 50 68.1 18.1 1.25 13.79 SALH059 2.4 6.5 4.1 1.23 1.69 10.7 21 10.3 0.61 1.45
Contacts: Ariana Resources plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616 Michael Spriggs, Chairman
Kerim Sener, Managing Director
Beaumont Cornish Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt
Fairfax I.S.

PLC Tel: +44 (0) 20 7598 5368 Ewan Leggat / Laura Littley
St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Susie Geliher / Hugo de Salis
Editors note: Dr Kerim Sener, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, is the Managing Director of Ariana Resources plc.

A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology, he also holds a Masters degree from the Royal School of Mines (Imperial College, London) in Mineral Exploration and a doctorate from the University of Western Australia.

He is a Fellow of The Geological Society of London and has worked in geological research and mineral consultancy in Southern Africa and Australia.

He has read and approved the technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement.
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 developing a portfolio of prospective licences selected on the basis of its in-house geological and remote-sensing database. The Companys flagship assets are its Sindirgi and Tavsan gold projects which form the Red Rabbit Gold Project.

Both 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 and now form part of a Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co.

The total resource inventory of the Company stands at 448,000 ounces of gold equivalent. Ariana maintains a Joint Venture in northeastern Turkey and also has a strategic investment in Tigris Resources Limited (www.tigrisresources.com), a private Jersey-based exploration company, which is focused on the exploration of copper and gold deposits in southeastern Turkey.

Ariana retains approximately 13% of Tigris Resources Limited. Fairfax I.S.

PLC are brokers to the Company and Beaumont Cornish Limited is the Companys Nominated Adviser. For further information on Ariana you are invited to visit the Companys website at www.arianaresources.com.
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