Proactive Investors - Ariana Resources (LON:ARNR) has unveiled a 22% increase in resources at the Tavsan Mine in Turkey, where construction work is ongoing and a further upgrade is anticipated in 2023.
The company's managing director Dr Kerim Sener described the new resource as “a tremendous enhancement” for the project.
In a statement, Ariana announced a new global resource of 6.6mln tonnes at a grade of 1.44 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 5.26 g/t silver, to give a total of 307,000 ounces and 1.1mln ounces of contained gold and silver respectively.
It also highlighted a ‘high-grade domain’ within that resource comprising 1.1mln tonnes at 2.74 g/t gold and 4.89 g/t silver, representing 96,000 ounces of gold and 171,000 ounces of silver. This part of the project is now defined in resources for the first time.
Ariana also said it estimates some 34,000 ounces of gold in lower-grade material which it does not currently classify as a resource.
Drilling is underway on exploration targets, a programme of some 4,600 metres, at the same time as construction work continues and Ariana noted that the Tavsan resource is “not closed off in several areas”.
Some 83% of the project’s current resource now sits within measured and indicated resource categories.
"This mineral resource estimate represents a tremendous enhancement for Tavsan, as construction continues on site,” Sener said in the statement. “Not only has the total resource grown to c.7mlnt tonnes but about 1mln tonnes of this is now attributed to a newly defined high-grade domain containing sufficient resources to potentially satisfy up to three years of gold output in its own right.
“This is all the more impressive considering that the 2016 Scoping Study had only considered a total mine life of four years from the entire resource. Current planning is consequently focusing on a mine life of eight years.”
Sener added: "When we acquired the project in 2008, we did so with the expectation that the resource could grow to this scale. Now that we have achieved this significant milestone, and after having completed additional work, we see that there is further room for growing the resource.”
The Ariana managing director told investors that the resource estimate will be updated again in 2023 following the current drill programme, meanwhile, today’s new estimate will be used to advance financial models and mine optimisations whilst the company works to complete its definitive feasibility study.