High-Grade Drilling Results at Tavsan

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the AIM-listed mineral exploration and development company with gold mining interests in Europe, is pleased to announce recent resource and extension drilling results from the Tavsan Project, and outline the progress of the mine development work. The project is operated via Zenit Madencilik San. ve Tic. A.S. ("Zenit"), in partnership with Proccea Construction Co. and Ozaltin Holding A.S. and is 23.5% owned by Ariana.

Highlights:

• Tavsan drilling campaign is now complete, with 10,285.7 metres, comprising 112 diamond drillholes drilled since November 2022.
• Best intercepts from the last batch of results include:

o TAV-D054-23 12.6m @ 4.61g/t Au + 9.11g/t Ag from 214.9m

§ including 1.7m @ 9.22g/t Au + 9.83g/t Ag from 220.3m

o TAV-D053-23 9.1m @ 2.99g/t Au + 7.25g/t Ag from 69.4m

§ including 0.9m @ 12.70g/t Au + 10.58g/t Ag from 70.4m

o TAV-D050-23 8.3m @ 2.61g/t Au + 1.63g/t Ag from 55.9m

• 2,565 assay results have been received to date, with 569 remaining samples pending analysis at the Kiziltepe Mine Laboratory ("KML").
• Resource and Reserve updates are underway following the latest results.
• Mine construction is continuing to advance well and the Company looks forward to declaring the first production from Tavsan in the coming months.

To read a pdf version of the release, please click here: http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/4279G_1-2024-3-11.pdf

Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"The latest drilling results from Tavsan are some of the most exciting we have ever released. High-grade mineralisation not only occurs on extensions of the North Zone near surface, but most intriguingly is now identified in the deep drilling on the project. This suggests that there may be other laterally extensive high-grade structures developed along other thrust-planes beneath the main zone of mineralisation at Tavsan. The purpose of this deeper drilling was to test this hypothesis, and these results confirm our understanding of this potential.

"Meanwhile mining at Tavsan remains underway at the Main Pit, with high-grade material (c.3 g/t Au) being stockpiled preferentially. The production of the first gold at Tavsan will be derived from this high-grade material. Other construction activities are both ongoing and on schedule, with further updates on progress to be provided in future announcements.

"We are continuing to update our geological model based on the new data, which is contributing towards a revised Mineral Resource Estimate. This in turn will be used to update our production targets and development plans for 2024. We expect to release the results of the new estimation before the end of this month."

Tavsan Project Summary

Gold mineralisation at Tavsan is epithermal in style, with associated silver and antimony, broadly located along the thrust contact between Jurassic-Cretaceous massively bedded limestone and an overlying Upper Cretaceous multi-lithic ophiolite sequence. In addition, a karstic network within the limestone and fractures within the ophiolitic rocks potentially acted as conduits for the development of jasperoidal and generally silicified rocks, several tens of metres, below and above the thrust fault contact, respectively.

The mineralised jasperoid developed along the thrust contact is irregular in form on a ten-metre scale, but broadly follows the gentle topography on a hundred-metre scale and is largely exposed at surface. In the vicinity of a NE-SW trending fault zone, the thrust is steeper than the topographic gradient, resulting in a more steeply dipping zone of mineralisation. The greatest thickness of gold-bearing jasperoid is observed in the vicinity of the NE-SW fault zone. However, gold concentration appears to have a dominant NW-SE control within the jasperoid as a whole, suggesting the potential for steeply dipping conduit structures cross-cutting the limestone units in the footwall.

Drilling Programme

The Tavsan Project is located in western Turkey, 130 kilometres by road from Kiziltepe Gold Mine. Following the approval of its Environmental Impact Assessment and associated permitting, Tavsan is being developed as Zenit's second gold mining operation in Turkey and is currently in construction, with mining underway.

Since November 2022, a resource infill and extension drilling programme has been underway at Tavsan, which is now complete. 112 drill holes, for a total of 10,285.7 metres of HQ diamond drilling were completed over the North and Main zones at Tavsan. The average depth for all drilling was approximately 92 metres, with a minimum depth of 16.5 meters and a maximum depth of 270.7 metres. Most holes were drilled vertically, with 18 holes angled at 45 to 75o.

Figure 1: Summary map showing the completed drillhole collar positions for the Tavsan Project.

The best intercepts from the latest results included:

TAV-D054-23 12.6m @ 4.61g/t Au + 9.11g/t Ag from 214.9m

o including 1.7m @ 9.22g/t Au + 9.83g/t Ag from 220.3m

TAV-D053-23 9.1m @ 2.99g/t Au + 7.25g/t Ag from 69.4m

o including 0.9m @ 12.70g/t Au + 10.58g/t Ag from 70.4m

• TAV-D050-23 8.3m @ 2.61g/t Au + 1.63g/t Ag from 55.9m
• TAV-D048-23 6.6m @ 2.50g/t Au + 6.30g/t Ag from 19.8m
• TAV-D054-23 3.6m @ 3.90g/t Au + 0.25g/t Ag from 177.6m

Samples obtained from Tavsan have been sent to the KML for analysis. The day-to-day operational samples from the Kiziltepe Mine have priority over the drilling samples from the development work underway at the Tavsan Project, causing a delay in receipt of results for the latest drilling programme at Tavsan. To date, 2,565 results (incl. QA/QC) for 2,102.15 metres of diamond core have been received from the KML, with 569 samples for 444.70 metres of drill core are pending for assay and multi-element analysis at KML. For previous results from the Tavsan drilling programme, refer to announcements on (AIM: 16 June 2022) and (AIM: 21 December 2023).

Table 1: Significant gold and silver intercepts calculated for the recent results from the Tavsan drilling programme, using a 0.5g/t Au minimum cut-off and allowing for up to 1m internal dilution.

Sampling and Assaying Procedures

All diamond drill core is currently being processed at the Tavsan Project and analysed at KML, where results are assessed systematically.

HQ-size drill-core samples from the drilling programme at Tavsan were cut in half by a diamond saw and sent for analysis in batches in line with the Company's quality control procedures. Core recovery for all drilling conducted at Tavsan during this campaign was 89%.

To date, a total of 2,091 sample results for 2,102.15 metres of sampled drill core has been returned from the KML (including 474 QA/QC samples). So far, 12% of all analysed samples have also been analysed by ALS Global in Izmir as an external laboratory check as part of the QA/QC procedures used for the project, with a minimum 10% check rate maintained to the end of the drilling programme. The results are pending for a further 565 samples (including 120 QA/QC samples).

QA/QC sample insertion rates vary depending on the batch size accepted by the laboratory. Ariana sampling protocol requires the insertion of 4 QA/QC samples per batch including 1 blank, 1 CRM, 1 field duplicate and 1 pulp duplicate to assess the accuracy and precision of all stages of the sampling and analysis. During the 2021-2023 drilling, Zenit QA/QC protocol required 1 blank, 1 CRM, 1 field duplicate, 1 pulp duplicate and over 10% samples analysed at an external laboratory. Since October 2022, KML has been accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TÜRKAK) with 'TS EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017 General Requirements for the Competence of Experimental and Calibration Laboratory'.

Editors' Note:

The information in this report relates to Exploration Results is based upon information compiled by Ruth Bektas, Exploration Group Leader, Ariana Resources plc. Ruth Bektas is a member of Recognised Professional Organisations as defined by JORC 2012: a Chartered Geologist (CGeol, Geological Society of London) and European Geologist (EurGeol, European Federation of Geologists) and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity upon which she is reporting as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of "The Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves." Ms. Bektas consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on the information compiled by her, in the form and context in which it appears.