Exploration Drilling Commences at >1Moz Dokwe
No summary for this filing – the full text is below.
Select text to share a quote on X · sign in to keep highlights & notes in your AAU notes
Ariana Resources plc (AIM: AAU, ASX: AA2, "Ariana" or the "Company"), the mineral exploration, development and production company with gold project interests in Africa and Europe, is pleased to announce that exploration drilling has commenced for the 100% owned Dokwe Gold Project ("Dokwe" or "the Project") in Zimbabwe.
Highlights:
o RC drilling underway at the >1Moz Dokwe Gold Project (Figure 1).
o An initial 26-hole, 4,000m RC drilling campaign is designed to test four target areas and to identify potential areas for future resource expansion.
o Major shear zones host the mineralisation at Dokwe with >1Moz of gold contained within only about 10% of the total 12km of strike length; remainder untested by drilling, suggesting considerable upside and discovery potential.
o Follow-up drilling may be planned, depending in part on the results obtained from the drilling of these targets; initial assays are expected to be available before year end.
o Consideration is being given to potentially expanding the scope of the RC programme to encompass drilling for metallurgical purposes at Dokwe Central in particular.
- Kerim Sener, Managing Director of Ariana Resources, commented:
"We are now well underway with our drilling programme at Dokwe, which has the objective of testing several targets identified in recent exploration work. Several areas of potential have been highlighted from the results of the soil geochemistry programme completed over the past few months. We look forward to seeing the first results of this programme prior to the end of this year and have contingency to allow for an expanded RC campaign, as required.
"We are also planning for the initial metallurgical work at Dokwe Central to be completed using RC drilling chips. Some diamond drilling will also be required on this area in the future, including for geotechnical purposes, but the results of this initial programme of RC drilling will go substantially towards defining the most appropriate and cost-effective future work activities for the Feasibility Study."
Figure 1: RC drilling commences at the Dokwe Project. Several targets are being tested, including the gold-in-soil anomaly identified to the northeast of Dokwe North and various targets in the vicinity of Dokwe Central
Summary of Drilling Targets
Exploration drilling is underway at the Dokwe North and Dokwe Central areas and their extensions, following the completion of regional exploration across the project area which outlined several additional targets (Figure 1). This work included the collection of 10,086 soil samples for multi-element portable XRF ("pXRF") and detectORETM gold analysis on a 50m by 100m grid across the entire project area totalling 44km2. Drilling is commencing with the Dokwe North Extension target, which was outlined in the soil geochemical programme.
Drilling is also planned to follow-up a historical intercept of 7.3m @ 6.63g/t Au from 32.2m at the Sinkwe prospect and of 0.5m @ 81.09g/t Au from 243m at the Siduli Pan prospect. Gold mineralisation at Dokwe North, Central and Siduli Pan are hosted by shear zones which juxtapose distinct litho-structural domains, separating volcanic and sedimentary units. Prospective shear zones have a combined strike length of at least 12km within the project area and remain largely untested.
For further information, please refer to the AIM announcement on 23 October 2025 and the ASX announcement on 27 October 2025.
Table 1: Dokwe Mineral Resource Estimate
| PROJECT | CLASSIFICATION (REPORTING CUT-OFF GRADE 0.3g/t Au) | TONNAGE (t) | GRADE (g/t Au) | CONTAINED GOLD (oz) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dokwe North | Measured | 17,309,000 | 1.06 | 592,000 |
| Indicated | 18,562,000 | 0.90 | 537,000 | |
| Inferred | 7,095,000 | 0.82 | 187,000 | |
| Total | 42,966,000 | 0.95 | 1,316,000 | |
| Dokwe Central | Indicated | 1,811,000 | 1.60 | 93,000 |
| Inferred | 120,000 | 1.69 | 7,000 | |
| Total | 1,931,000 | 1.61 | 100,000 | |
| Total | Measured | 17,309,000 | 1.06 | 592,000 |
| Indicated | 20,373,000 | 0.96 | 631,000 | |
| Inferred | 7,214,000 | 0.83 | 193,000 | |
| TOTAL | 44,896,000 | 0.98 | 1,416,000 | |
| PROJECT | CLASSIFICATION (REPORTING CUT-OFF GRADE 0.6g/t Au) | TONNAGE (t) | GRADE (g/t Au) | CONTAINED GOLD (oz) |
| Dokwe North | Measured | 10,220,000 | 1.50 | 493,000 |
| Indicated | 8,260,000 | 1.50 | 399,000 | |
| Inferred | 3,123,000 | 1.33 | 134,000 | |
| Total | 21,604,000 | 1.48 | 1,025,000 | |
| Dokwe Central | Indicated | 1,207,000 | 2.19 | 85,000 |
| Inferred | 98,000 | 1.98 | 6,000 | |
| Total | 1,306,000 | 2.18 | 91,000 | |
| Total | Measured | 10,220,000 | 1.50 | 493,000 |
| Indicated | 9,468,000 | 1.59 | 484,000 | |
| Inferred | 3,222,000 | 1.35 | 140,000 | |
| TOTAL | 22,909,000 | 1.52 | 1,116,000 |
Notes:
- The Dokwe Mineral Resource Estimate is inclusive of Reserves.
Compliance Statements
Cleaned text: letterheads, contacts and legal notices removed. View the original announcement ↗ · Company filings. Not investment advice.