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Joint Venture Philosophy
The Company encourages and welcomes Joint Venture participation in Turkey. The Company is continuously evaluating such opportunities and seeks to develop those of merit, with like minded JV partners. Our aim is to ensure the positive development of any JV properties with the objective of defining potentially mineable resources.
European Goldfields Joint Venture
The Company has one active JV in northeastern Turkey with European Goldfields Limited (AIM & TSX: EGU). Ariana holds 49% of the JV company, Greater Pontides Exploration BV and its Turkish operating subsidiary, Pontid Madencilik San. ve Tic. Ltd.
European Goldfields is funding the exploration of a portfolio of licences that were assigned from Ariana to the JV, and initial work is concentrating on the Ardala Cu-Au porphyry and surrounding exploration tenements in Artvin Province. Other generative exploration work is ongoing.
Exploration will be funded to a definitive feasibility study at which point Ariana will be diluted to 20% for projects already held by the JV and 10% for any new projects within the JV. Funding of development costs thereafter is undertaken on a pro-rata basis and if Ariana is diluted to <5% during this period of joint funding then Ariana will adopt a 1.5% NSR.
Ardala Project:
The Ardala Prospect is located in the Pontide Metallogenic Province of Turkey and lies approximately 80km southeast of the coastal city of Hopa and 20km east of Artvin. The prospect was acquired according to a royalty agreement for which a 1.5% NSR will be payable in the event that the project enters production.
The prospect hosts a porphyry copper-gold (plus molybdenum) mineralised system associated with a series of nested quartz diorite intrusions of Eocene age within an Upper Cretaceous volcano-sedimentary sequence. Exposed parts of the porphyry have dimensions of 600 by 700m and interpretation of ground magnetic data suggests further lateral continuity beneath limestone units.
Twenty-seven drill holes were undertaken on part of the mineralised system in the early 1990's for which an outline (non-JORC) resource of 20Mt at an average grade of 0.25 % Cu, 0.45 g/t Au and 65 ppm Mo was established. A phased programme of drilling commenced on the southern margins of the porphyry system during 2009.
Salinbas Discovery:
In 2008, a major new soil anomaly, named the Salinbas Target, was discovered on and adjacent to the Ardala property, to the south-west of the area drilled by previous operators. Rock-chip samples taken from this area included 16.4 and 18.4 g/t Au in gossaniferous breccia, and 1.92 g/t Au in porphyry and 0.4 g/t Au in skarn. The Salinbas Target is just over 1km from the area drilled in the 1990s and has a strike of about 1km and width of 0.3km. A zone of continuous and high-grade breccia type mineralisation 230m in strike length, 5-15m wide and grading 10.8g/t Au on average has been defined within this target area. An additional licence was secured in this area to cover the Salinbas Target and trenching identified multiple zones of mineralisation, highlights of which included 33m at 9.6 g/t Au and 46m at 8.3 g/t Au. A phased drilling programme will commence during 2010
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