Good morning, Please find attached a BUY note for Ariana Resources Plc (AIM: AAU), where Fairfax initiate coverage for the Company with a BUY rating and a target price of 10p (current price 4.25p), a 135% upside. Fairfaxs note highlighted: "The company is moving quickly to develop its first gold mine and to increase gold and silver resources on the JV and wholly owned licence area....

The Companys relatively small capitalisation looks good value considering its potential...

The management are conservative in their approach to announcements on the project - they are more likely to under promise and over deliver." Ariana Resources this morning announced the upcoming commencement of exploration licence auctions in Turkey by the Turkish General Directorate of Mining Affairs (pasted below). Kindest regards, Lottie [cid:image001.jpg@01CC8736.68FE9400] [cid:image002.jpg@01CC8738.ED3C1D80] 10 October 2011 AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU
LICENCE AUCTIONS ANNOUNCED Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce the upcoming commencement of exploration licence auctions in Turkey by the Turkish General Directorate of Mining Affairs. Highlights: ? First round of licence auctions for Group IV licences (which include gold, silver, copper etc.) since the new mining law came into effect in June 2010 ? 1,252 Group IV exploration licences to be auctioned via a consecutive closed and open bidding process ? Auctions to commence in January and continue until May 2012 ? 20 prospective target licences have already been identified in Arianas area of interest and will be further evaluated before the auctions begin ? The Company is in a strong position to take advantage of opportunities offered by this round of auctions, following on from the Companys ambitious grassroots exploration programme in 2010/11 Dr.

Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented: "This marks a key opportunity to substantially increase the Companys mineral exploration footprint in Western Turkey, an area which we believe holds significant exploration upside and potential for multi-million ounce discoveries.

We are in a strong position to enter into this auction process, as we benefit from the extensive geoscientific database which we have built across Turkey, which was enhanced during our recent regional grassroots exploration programme. "We are in an unrivalled position to identify prospective target areas for exploration in western Turkey, and acquire these at auction.

Having our own operational drill rig means we can quickly evaluate any licences that we acquire.

This will help us on our way to growing our resource-base across Western Turkey through low-cost grassroots discoveries by the Ariana exploration team, and achieving our target resource of 1 million ounces gold equivalent."
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 Hugo de Salis / Susie Geliher
Editors note: 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, on its own in western Turkey and in Joint Venture with European Goldfields Limited in north-eastern Turkey.

European Goldfields owns 51% of this joint venture and, as the operator, is fully funding all exploration work on the JV properties until delivery of a feasibility study. 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 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.