Ariana Resources, the gold exploration company focused on Turkey, has signed a Heads of Agreement with European Goldfields for the joint development of Ariana’s properties in north-eastern Turkey, which include the Ardala copper-gold porphyry and 11 other licences covering a total area of 168 km2. Completion of the Joint Venture and a related placing in Ariana is expected by mid-April 2008, conditional upon satisfactory due diligence and the signing of definitive agreements.
Highlights
- Joint venture to develop the Artvin properties, including the Ardala Cu-Au project
- Exploration program to be funded by European Goldfields
- Significant projects to be advanced to Bankable Feasibility.
The Joint Venture is focused on the Pontides region of Turkey, a highly prospective geological terrain containing several major deposits. The Ardala Cu-Au porphyry has been the subject of reconnaissance drilling around the periphery of a porphyry intrusion, which identified encouraging grades of copper and gold. It has a 600 m x 700 m surface exposure centred on a magnetic high of 1,000 m x 1,000 m
extent. Copper-gold mineralisation has also been identified on other properties in the vicinity of Ardala within granitoids and in the surrounding country rocks.
European Goldfields will initially own 51% of the properties transferred by Ariana into the Joint Venture. European Goldfields will then fund all development costs of these initial properties and any future properties located within a defined area in northeastern Turkey until completion of a Bankable Feasibility Study, at which time European Goldfields’ interest in each relevant project will increase to between 80% and 90%, respectively.
