Pursuant to the authorities granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 29 June 2009, the Board of Ariana Resources plc ("Ariana" or "the Company"), the gold exploration and development company focused on Turkey, today announces the issue of 855,216 new Ordinary Shares of 1 pence each at a price of 2 pence per share and 3 pence per share for salaries due to Directors and staff during the first and second quarters of 2009 ("the Share Issue").  As set out in the Annual Report & Accounts 2008, this came about as a result of certain Directors deferring a portion of their salaries during the first quarter and the shares have been issued at the average price during the quarter to satisfy the amount deferred.  

 

Following the Share Issue, the Directors' shareholdings will be as follows:

 

	Shares issued under the Share Issue	Shareholding following the Share Issue	Percentage holding of issued shares following the Share  Issue
Kerim Sener *	263,143, of which 161,290 were issued @ 2p, and 101,853 @ 3p	4,013,143	2.80%
Michael Spriggs	131,572, of which 80,645 were issued @ 2p, and 50,927 @ 3p	519,072	0.36%
Michael de Villiers	263,143, of which 161,290 were issued @2p and 101,853 @3p	2,085,143	1.45%

 

* Kerim Sener's shareholding currently includes shares held by related parties. 

 

 

 

Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the new Ordinary Shares  to be admitted to trading on AIM.  It is anticipated that Admission will become effective and dealings will commence on or around 14 August 2009.  The new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu, in all respects, with the existing Ordinary Shares that are currently in issue and are traded on AIM.  Following admission of these shares, there will be a total of 143,110,294 Ordinary Shares in issue. 

 

 

 

Ariana Resources plc	Tel: 020 7407 3616
Michael Spriggs, Chairman
Kerim Sener, Managing Director
Beaumont Cornish Limited	Tel: 020 7628 3396
Roland Cornish
Lothbury Financial	Tel: 020 7011 9411
Michael Padley / Libby Moss
Alexander David Securities Limited	Tel: 020 7448 9820
Nick Bealer / David Scott
Loeb Aron & Company Ltd	Tel: 020 7628 1128
Peter Freeman / Frank Lucas

 

 

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 Joint Venture with European Goldfields Limited in north-eastern Turkey. 

 

The Company's flagship assets are its Sindirgi and Tavsan gold projects.  Both projects 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.  The total resource inventory of the Company stands at 401,000 ounces of gold equivalent. 

 

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