Issue of Equity: Exercis...

7 March 2012
AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU

ISSUE OF EQUITY

EXERCISE OF WARRANTS

TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS

The Board of Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, today announces that following the exercise of 4,000,000 of warrants during February 2012 which were granted on the same terms as a one for one with placing shares announced on 18 February 2011, exercisable at 4.75p each within twelve months of the date of admission ("the Exercise"), the Company has issued and allotted 4,000,000 new ordinary shares. This is the last Exercise and all unexercised warrants as of 29 February 2012 have now expired.

Application will be made for the 4,000,000 new ordinary shares issued pursuant to the Exercise, which will rank pari passu, with all existing ordinary shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM.  Admission is expected to take place on or around 13 March 2012 ("Admission").

At Admission, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 269,329,508 Ordinary Shares with a nominal value of 1p each, with voting rights ("Ordinary Shares"). The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in Treasury.  Therefore the total number of Ordinary Shares in the Company with voting rights will be 269,329,508.

The above figure of 269,329,508 Ordinary Shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Service Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

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About Ariana Resources

Ariana is an exploration and development company focused on epithermal gold-silver and porphyry copper-gold deposits in Turkey.  The Company is developing a portfolio of prospective licences selected on the basis of its in-house geological and remote-sensing database, on its own in western Turkey and in Joint Venture with European Goldfields Limited in north-eastern Turkey.  European Goldfields owns 51% of this joint venture and, as the operator, is fully funding all exploration work on the JV properties until delivery of a feasibility study.

The Company's flagship assets are its Sindirgi and Tavsan gold projects which form the Red Rabbit Gold Project.  Both contain a series of prospects, within two prolific mineralised districts in the Western Anatolian Volcanic and Extensional (WAVE) Province in western Turkey.  This Province hosts the largest operating gold mines in Turkey and remains highly prospective for new porphyry and epithermal deposits.  These core projects, which are separated by a distance of 75km, are presently being assessed as to their economic merits and now form part of a Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co.  The total resource inventory of the Company stands at 448,000 ounces of gold equivalent.  

Ariana also has a strategic investment in Tigris Resources Limited (www.tigrisresources.com), a private Jersey-based exploration company, which is focused on the exploration of copper and gold deposits in southeastern Turkey.  Ariana retains approximately 13% of Tigris Resources Limited.  

Fairfax I.S. PLC is the broker to the Company and Beaumont Cornish Limited is the Company's Nominated Adviser.

For further information on Ariana you are invited to visit the Company's website at www.arianaresources.com.

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