Ariana Resources plc announced positive results from the fourth quarter 2023 drilling programme at the Kizilcukur Project, of the Kiziltepe Sector. Kizilcukur is part of Zenit Madencilik San. ve Tic., in partnership with Proccea Construction Co. and Ozaltin Holding A.S. where 23.5% is owned by Ariana. As announced on 28 November 2023, this drilling programme was designed to increase the confidence in the Resource, upgrade the classification and to further test along known mineralised structures, both at depth and along strike. In particular, the vein systems at Ziya and Zafer were targeted, which had previously received only limited drill testing. In addition, infill drilling at depth and along strike was completed at the Zeki Vein system. Ariana and Zenit exploration teams completed the HQ diamond drilling programme of 56 holes, totalling 3,563.8m at the end of November 2023. At the peak of the programme, two drill rigs were operating simultaneously. The average depth for all drilling was approximately 63 metres, with a minimum depth of 28.6 metres and a maximum depth of 118.8 metres. The dip angles ranged from 45° to 77° to optimally test the extents of the mineralisation. Results of the first 20 holes were announced in November 2023, with the results for the remaining holes being announced with this release. The most significant intercepts in these holes within the expected target zones included: Zeki: KCR-D54-23: 1.9m @ 30.56g/t Au + 37.7g/t Ag, from 99.7m including: 0.6m @ 18.47g/t Au + 47.9g/t Ag, 0.6m @ 16.75g/t Au + 20.2g/t Ag, 0.7m @ 52.76g/t Au + 44.0g/t Ag; Zafer: KCR-D40-23: 17.2m @ 1.99g/t Au + 153.4g/t Ag from 14.0m, Ziya: KCR-D32-23: 2.9m @ 9.62g/t Au + 25.3g/t Ag from 27.2m, Zeki: KCR-D29-23: 5.9m @ 4.53g/t Au + 72.8g/t Ag from 11.2m. The drilling programme revealed the complex multi-phase mineralisation characteristic of the Kizilcukur deposit. Three different mineralisation phases have been identified and are now being evaluated in further detail. These represent epithermal quartz veins, manganese-rich zones, and a deeper massive sulphide lead and zinc-rich zones, which are suggestive of a low to intermediate sulphidation type system. An automated multi-sensor core scanner (BoxScan technology) is being used to obtain data on geochemistry, mineralogy, magnetic susceptibility, core topography and high-resolution RGB colour imagery of core from the key holes from the 2023 Kizilcukur drilling programme. Previously, 30 holes from the 2007, 2018 and 2019 drill programmes, totalling over 2,530m (712 core trays) were scanned. Single-element and multi-element data analysis methods will be applied to the new data to aid machine learning by training the system on the known lithologies. Core scanning data from the latest drilling will help to decipher the phases of mineralisation in more detail and potentially improve exploration targeting in future drilling programmes. The drilling planned for 2024 at Kizilcukur has been split into two phases. Phase 1 (circa 1,000m) will focus on potential extension zones close to the currently defined mineralisation and will also include infill holes to increase confidence in areas where the data density requires improvement. Phase 2 (up to 2,500m) will be exploration-focused, concentrating on testing the extent of surface anomalies at depth and drilling below historic workings seen at surface. Forestry permits for these proposed programmes will be applied for in due course. All diamond drill core are currently being processed at the Kiziltepe mine site and analysed at the Kiziltepe Mine Laboratory ("KML"). Results are assessed systematically and are grouped according to the project. HQ-size drill-core samples from the drilling programme at Kizilcukur were cut in half by a diamond saw and sent for analysis in batches in line with the Company's quality control procedures. Core recovery for all drilling conducted at Kizilcukur during this campaign was 90%. A total of 3,621 samples (including 762 QA/QC samples) were submitted to KML, of which all results have been received. 424 samples (including QA/QC) have been sent to ALS Global, Izmir as an external laboratory check to validate KML results, with results for 250 samples having been received to date. QA/QC sample insertion rates vary depending on the batch size accepted by the laboratory. Ariana sampling protocol requires insertion of four QA/QC samples per batch including one blank, one CRM, one field duplicate and one pulp duplicate to assess the accuracy and precision of all stages of the sampling and analysis. During this drilling programme, Zenit QA/QC protocol required one blank, one CRM, one field duplicate, one pulp duplicate per batch of 19 samples and over 10% samples were analysed at external laboratory. Between 2020 and 2021, KML has undergone an extensive expansion to meet the significant demands for sample assaying, from both the mining and exploration teams. This expansion is complete with the onsite laboratory, now housing seven furnaces, two ICP-OES instruments, two Atomic Absorption spectrometers (AAS), three drying ovens, three crushers and three pulverisers. The laboratory upgrades have allowed for a doubling of sampling throughput (70 samples per day to 135). The two major upgrades for 2021 included the addition of 1) a multi-element ICP-OES (Perkin Elmer Avio 550) analyser, and 2) an Elementrac CS-I sulphur-carbon analyser. The ICP-OES provides the team with a full suite of elements on selected samples (as opposed to just gold and silver). However, new operating procedures are currently being internally reviewed and calibrations of the new instruments are being assessed. As part of this, the laboratory team are sending in excess of 10% of their crushed rejects from selected drill core samples to ALS Global in Izmir for check assays. Zenit's internal QA/QC data and sample duplicates have been reviewed, and are considered approved for Ariana's reporting purposes. In addition, since October 2022 KML has been accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TÜRKAK) with "TS EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017 General Requirements for the Competence of Experimental and Calibration Laboratory".
All samples were assayed for gold using a 30g fire assay. Reviews of the assay results have determined that all Quality Control and Quality Assurance samples (blanks, standards, and
duplicates) passed the required quality control checks established by the Company, with duplicate samples showing excellent correlation. Laboratory sample preparation, assaying
procedures and chain of custody are appropriately controlled. Zenit maintains an archive of half core samples and a photographic record of all cores for future reference.