Exploration Updates: Türkiye, Kosovo & Cyprus

Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the AIM-listed mineral exploration and development company with gold project interests in Africa and Europe, is pleased to provide an exploration update on its projects in Türkiye, Kosovo and Cyprus.

Highlights:

• Kosovo: Initial earn-in up to 51%* of the Slivova Project is underway, through the completion of trenching and a separate 1,000m drilling programme; other generative exploration is in progress via the Exploration Alliance Agreement with Newmont.
• Cyprus: Over 9,000m of drilling is planned to increase confidence in currently defined resources and to test other targets. Discussions are underway to potentially advance the projects in partnership with other groups.
• Türkiye: Three contiguous exploration licences are being explored in the Project Leopard area in eastern Türkiye, with broader generative exploration also underway.

* Earn-in agreement on Slivova is via Western Tethyan Resources Ltd, of which Ariana owns 76%.

Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"We are pleased with the consistent progress being maintained across all our exploration areas during the past year. In Kosovo, our subsidiary is now in the process of committing to completing its initial earn-in to take control of the Slivova Gold Project, which contains a global NI43-101 Mineral Resource of 176,000oz of gold and 646,000oz of silver, largely in Measured and Indicated categories. A diamond drilling programme of approximately 1,000m will commence imminently, testing the extensions of the current resource and a couple of additional targets in its periphery.

"In Cyprus, work continues to demonstrate the potential for discovery of new volcanic massive sulphide deposits based on a revised geological model. We consider the potential for major 'Mavrovouni-style' deposits to remain high, given the lack of deeper modern exploration across the island. Venus Minerals has acquired and continues to acquire licences that have some of the very best geological, geophysical and geochemical targets for future testing. Venus is also investigating opportunities to partner its projects with like-minded exploration companies to develop its assets.

"In Türkiye, our generative exploration work across the Project Leopard area in the eastern part of the country is identifying longer-term opportunities to acquire prospective ground either through government auction or via direct application. Our current exploration licences in this region have seen initial stream and rock-chip sampling programmes completed and existing geochemical anomalies partly followed up.

"We continue to streamline our portfolio and consider these projects as significant to the longer-term growth of the Company, and we will notify the market as these opportunities develop."

Kosovo

Ariana owns 76% of UK-registered Western Tethyan Resources Ltd ("WTR"), which operates across south-eastern Europe and is primarily focused on Kosovo. WTR is targeting its exploration for major copper-gold deposits across the porphyry-epithermal transition. WTR completed its first phase of drilling at the Hertica Project this year, with encouraging results suggesting a porphyry-style copper-gold-molybdenum bearing alteration system (AIM: 31 July 2024). This programme of work was undertaken with funding secured through the Exploration Alliance Agreement with Newmont Mining Corporation, along with other generative exploration across South East Europe.

In recent months, the WTR team has been working on a trenching programme at the Slivova Project. Over 1,800 portable X-ray Fluorescence ("pXRF") samples were collected over eight trenches spanning 1,850m. From these samples, bismuth results from the pXRF analysis strongly correlate with historic gold assay analyses. Arsenic in the pXRF data also shows significant associations with gold mineralised zones but generally outlines areas of altered host rocks and wider mineralised zones. This pXRF data has been instrumental in determining samples for gold assay analysis, which is pending.

Within the trenching programme, six trenches were completed over the Dzemajl Target, where the objective was to identify and measure structures related to mineralisation defined in historic trenching. The seventh trench was excavated directly over the central Slivova deposit area to expose outcropping mineralisation and better map the structural controls of the deposit. A final trench was excavated over the Vajileviste Target; an area defined by a weak soil gold anomaly, some historic trenching, and a weak-to-moderate Induced Polarisation ("IP") chargeability target.

In the coming weeks, the WTR team is finalising logistics to initiate a 1,000-metre diamond drill programme for four holes (Figure 1). The programme has three technical objectives:

• Complete two infill resource holes (PL04 and PL25), which are critical for testing an area where the Slivova resource is "open". The estimated blocks in the resource model here are currently classified as Inferred.
• Complete an exploration hole approximately 120m west of Slivova to test a significant IP chargeability target which shows characteristics suggestive of a concealed intrusive body.
• Test the Vajileviste target area to understand better the relationships between anomalous soil samples, historic trenching results, and a weak-to-moderate IP chargeability anomaly.

On completion of this drilling programme, WTR will have satisfied the requirements of its initial 51% earn-in on the Slivova Project from Avrupa Minerals Ltd (TSX-V: AVU). WTR will then commence work towards its earn-in to 75% of the Slivova Project, which will require a further €1,000,000 of expenditure for the preparation of a JORC Code-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate and the commencement of an Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA").

Figure 1: Summary of work completed and pending for the Slivova deposit, showing the locations of recently completed trenching and planned drill collars.

Cyprus

Ariana owns 61% of UK-registered Venus Minerals PLC ("Venus") which is focused on the exploration and development of copper-gold assets in Cyprus containing a combined JORC Indicated and Inferred Resource of 16.6Mt @ 0.45% to 0.80% copper (excluding additional gold, silver and zinc). Kokkinoyia, the largest component of the combined Resource (12.3Mt @ 0.45% Cu and 0.28g/t Au), is currently under a new application, along with two other exploration licences.

Venus holds 17 licences in prospective regions, with licence areas selected following the review of an island-wide proprietary database, detailed field mapping and soil sampling. The next phase of exploration work for Venus will include targeting 'Mavrovouni-style' deposits, with 5,350m of percussion drilling planned across four licences to test identified targets. In addition to this, 3,700m of step-out and infill diamond drilling is planned for advanced-stage projects. This planned phase of drilling will also provide the material needed for metallurgical test work for these projects.

Discussions are underway with several third parties to fund all or part of the proposed exploration programmes via joint venture, earn-in or other commercial arrangements. Since April 2024, the ongoing funding requirements of Venus have been met by both Ariana and its partner, Semarang Enterprises Ltd, on a pro-rata basis.

Türkiye

Project Leopard is 100% Ariana-owned, focusing on greenfield exploration across eastern Türkiye (Figure 2). As part of Project Leopard, Ariana has been identifying multiple prospective locations across eastern Türkiye using our proprietary exploration datasets coupled with the use of the Newmont 2D Database under licence. This work has also involved extensive new satellite remote-sensing and geophysical data processing and interpretation, which is being conducted in-house. Ariana remains poised to make applications for ground across the region in the future, intending to initiate a major greenfield exploration effort targeting the discovery of significant new copper-gold deposits.

Ariana currently holds three contiguous licences within the Project Leopard area, covering approximately 6,000 hectares. This project, known as the Güllüce Project, is located to the north of the Güllüce village, about 50km northwest of Erzurum, eastern Türkiye. Stream sediment and rock-chip sampling were completed on the Güllüce Project, in addition to geological mapping. Massive limestone in the centre of the license area, conglomerate, mudstone, and sandstone alternations in the south and younger volcanics were observed. In regions close to the southern contact of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, volcanic breccias containing volcanic and sedimentary clasts in a limonitic matrix were observed and sampled. Previous surface geochemistry was followed up by this sampling programme and demonstrated low-level gold anomalism along an NE-SW trending zone across the licences.

Ariana is also conducting brownfield exploration in Türkiye through its 23.5% share in Zenit Madencilik as part of its partnership with Ozaltin Holding A.S. and Proccea Construction Co. Alongside this, the Ariana team are continuing to review all projects held with Zenit, to determine the potential expansion of resources near the Kiziltepe and Tavsan mine sites following extensive drilling and other exploration programmes during the past few years.

Figure 2: The three metallogenic arcs in eastern Türkiye, the focus of Project Leopard. The three licences of the Güllüce Project held by Ariana are shown as a single red box.

Editors' Note:

"k" thousand

"km" Kilometres;

"m" Metres;

"MRE" Mineral Resource Estimate;

"M" million

"oz" Troy ounces;

"t" tonnes;

Ends.