Update on standby equity distribution agreement

9 February 2011
AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU

UPDATE ON STANDBY EQUITY DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT

ISSUE OF EQUITY

TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS

Further to the announcement of 21 January 2011, Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, is pleased to announce that under the £5 million Standby Equity Distribution Agreement ("SEDA") with YA Global Master SPV Ltd, an investment fund managed by Yorkville Advisors LLC ("Yorkville") the Company has today issued 3,988,985 new ordinary shares at £0.0376 as settlement of the agreed fee of £150,000 to secure the SEDA.  

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the new ordinary shares, which will rank pari passu will all existing ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on AIM.  Admission is expected to take place on or around 14 February 2011.

For the purposes of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Services Authority, the Company announces the following:

As at the date of this announcement, the Company's issued share capital consists of 225,978,517 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 is 225,978,517.

The above figure of 225,978,517 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.

Contacts:

Editors' note:

About Yorkville Advisors and Yorkville Advisors UK

Yorkville Advisors UK, LLP is a sub-advisor to the US-based alternative investment manager Yorkville Advisors, LLC.

Founded in January 2001 by Mark Angelo, Yorkville specializes in providing flexible, innovative debt and equity investments and financing in publicly listed companies in a variety of sectors including energy, mining, technology media & telecommunication (TMT), healthcare and shipping.

Yorkville tailors its financings according to each company's need and offers a mix of debt structures, bridge financings, asset backed loans, equity facilities and, in some cases, equity injections.

Yorkville has offices in Jersey City, New Jersey; Jupiter, Florida; Denver, Colorado; London and Hong Kong as well as a joint venture agreement in Milan, Italy.

www.yorkvilleadvisors.com

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 exploring 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 a 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 asset is the Red Rabbit project, which contains the Kiziltepe and Tavsan sectors.  The project contains 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.  The Kiziltepe and Tavsan sectors, 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 15% of Tigris Resources Limited.

Loeb Aron & Company Ltd. and Alexander David Securities Limited are joint brokers 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.

Ends