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Mariana Resources - Las Calandrias Drilling Update, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina



MARIANA RESOURCES LIMITED AIM and PLUS code: MARL
16 April 2010
Las Calandrias Drilling Update, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
Mariana Resources Ltd (Mariana or the Company), the AIM quoted exploration and development company focussed in Chile and Argentina, is pleased to provide a further update on drilling progress at its 100% owned Las Calandrias Project in the Deseado Massif of Santa Cruz Province, Southern Argentina.

The project has four key target areas: Calandria Sur, Calandria Norte, El Nido Este and El Nido Norte.
Highlights
* A further 14 diamond drill holes completed at Calandria Sur bringing the total number of holes to 28 and 3,200m drilled * Broad zones of brecciation, silicification and stockwork marcasite mineralisation, ranging from 14m to 80m down-hole intersected in all holes drilled to date * Assay results are expected from late April to late May
Calandria Sur
The current phase of drilling at Calandria Sur has been completed with a total of 28 holes drilled for 3,200metres.

Together with the seven 2009 drill holes, the drilling covers an area of approximately 700metres NW-SE by 120 metres to 220metres NE-SW.

The last 12 holes have been testing the core of the rhyolite dome with the first 14 holes mostly along the eastern and northern dome margins.

Most holes drilled have intersected broad zones of brecciation, silicification and marcasite/pyrite stockworks from 14 metres to 80 metres down-hole. Samples from 16 holes have been submitted to the assay laboratory so far.
Other Priority Targets
An additional eight holes are proposed for priority targets at Calandria Norte, El Nido Este and El Nido Norte as part of the current programme.
See website at www.marianaresources.com for diagrams showing Calandria Sur, Calandria Norte and El Nido Este drill plan plus the new El Nido Norte Prospect channel sampling results.


John Sutcliffe Managing Director
For further information contact the following:
John Horsburgh (Chairman) Mariana Resources Ltd +61 2 94374588 John Sutcliffe (MD) Mariana Resources Ltd +593 99 808080 Rob Adamson RFC Corporate Finance Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0041 Will Souter RFC Corporate Finance Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0050 Joe Lunn (Analyst) FinnCap (Broker) +44 20 7600 1658 Matthew Robinson FinnCap (Broker) +44 20 7600 1658 Felicity Edwards St Brides Media and Finance Ltd (PR) +44 20 7236 1177 Hugo de Salis St Brides Media and Finance Ltd (PR) +44 20 7236 1177
ABOUT MARIANA Mariana Resources Ltd is an AIM quoted exploration and development company with an extensive portfolio of gold, silver and copper projects in Argentina and Chile.

The Company has two gold-silver discoveries and a joint venture with Hochschild Mining in the highly prospective Deseado Massif region: the Las Calandrias project indicating a major mineralised system with gold bulk tonnage potential; the Sierra Blanca project, a high grade silver-gold prospect; and advanced exploration at the Los Amigos JV.

In Chile, Mariana has two Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) exploration projects in the highly prospective Atacama Fault Zone, approximately 100 km from Freeports Candelaria Copper Mine: the Buenaventura and Perro Chico projects which comprise 12,000 hectares. In addition, it has a generative pipeline of early stage projects including a major land package totalling approximately 160,000 hectares in southern Argentina.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Drilling is being undertaken by Boart Longyear Argentinausing a rig 25HH-3 core drill.

The drill program is managed by the Argentina Exploration Manager, Dr Gustavo A.

Rodriguez under supervision of Managing Director Mr John Sutcliffe.

Exploration information in this announcement has been compiled by John Sutcliffe who is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Mr Sutcliffe has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralization and types of gold deposit under consideration and to the activity that he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code.
Sampling and Analytical Details
All diamond drill core samples are split on geological contacts with minimum and maximum sample length of 0.7 and 3 metres respectively and represent sawn half HQ-size core.
The first batch consisted of 495 samples, (including certified control standards, quarter core duplicates and blanks).

All the samples are collected under the supervision of the Company geologists.

During the sample handling procedure, the sample shipments are tracked.

Core samples were placed into uniquely labelled sample bags.

A record of the sample location and other specific details is documented in the sample data base.


All samples were sent to ALS Chemex Labs with preparation facilities in Mendoza and assayed in Chile for gold and multi element ICP analyses. Rock sample preparation includes weighing, drying, fine crushing of entire sample to better than 70% -2mm, split of 250g and pulverize split to better than 85% passing 75 microns (PREP-31- DRY-22).

The 34 element ME ICP41 package analyses utilize an aqua regia digestion.

Gold analyses for all samples are fire assay and AAS (Au-AA24, 50g nominal sample weight, range 0.005-10 ppm) with any results over 10g/t checked using a gravimetric finish (Au-GRA22- 50 gr , range 0.05- 1.000 g/t).

Silver grades exceeding 100 g/t were assayed by fire assay and gravimetric finish (Ag-GRA21, 30g nominal sample weight, range 5-10,000 ppm).

ALS Chemexs quality system complies with the requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17025: 1999
Quality Assurance/Quality Control All technical information for the Companys Argentina projects is obtained and reported under a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program.

Four different certified standards were inserted at an average of one per 20 samples, blanks (in house) at one per 40 samples, while quarter-core duplicates were inserted at intervals of approximately 35 samples.

A total of 9 % control samples have been inserted.

Assays that meet the QA/QC are incorporated in the Mariana data base.
Felicity Edwards St Brides Media and Finance Ltd Chaucer House 38 Bow Lane London EC4M 9AY
Tel: +44 (0) 207 236 1177 Mob: +44 (0) 7748 843871 Fax: +44 (0) 207 236 1188 Email: Web: www.sbmf.co.uk
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