After years of permitting, construction and commissioning, a small Anglo-Turkish gold miner has finally reached the moment that matters: ore moving onto the pads at full tilt.
Ariana Resources (AIM: AAU), which develops gold projects in Türkiye, said its Tavşan mine has completed ramp-up and is now stacking ore onto its heap-leach pads at the target rate of at least 4,000 tonnes per day. The operation is placing roughly 60,000 tonnes of ore on the pads each month, with about 350,000 tonnes already under leach. The company’s adsorption, desorption and recovery circuit — the plant that strips gold from the leach solution — is delivering recoveries of around 70%. The shares edged up about 2.5% to 1.59p as the update landed.
Reaching steady-state stacking is a meaningful de-risking step for a heap-leach operation, where cash generation depends on getting large tonnages of ore onto the pads and keeping recoveries consistent. Ariana said it had also built ore stockpiles of about 750,000 tonnes, including lower-grade material that can be processed later in the mine’s life — a buffer that gives the operation flexibility on feed and scheduling. Recent drilling has highlighted scope to expand the existing open pits and potentially link separate mineralised zones, pointing to a longer runway at the site.
Alongside the operational milestone, Ariana continued to tidy up its Turkish structure. The company has moved its 9.9% interest in the Kiziltepe assets into a standalone entity, with a view to selling that stake to Proccea Construction. The effect is to separate the older Kiziltepe interest from Tavşan, leaving the group with a cleaner focus on the mine it now operates directly. Ariana is also quoted on Australia’s ASX under the ticker AA2, part of a broader effort to widen its shareholder base.
The investment case still carries the risks that come with a single producing asset in an emerging-market jurisdiction. Heap-leach recoveries can vary with ore type and weather, gold-price swings feed straight through to margins, and the value that Ariana ultimately realises from the Kiziltepe stake depends on completing the sale to Proccea. Türkiye’s permitting and currency backdrop add their own complications for any miner operating there.
Still, for a company that has spent much of the past two years talking about what Tavşan would eventually produce, the shift to reporting what it is actually stacking and recovering is the point investors have waited for. The next test is a run of production figures showing that the 70% recovery rate and 4,000-tonne-a-day cadence can be sustained through a full operating cycle.
This report is based on Ariana’s regulatory update of 22 July 2026 and coverage by Proactive Investors and TipRanks. Company announcements can be tracked via London Stock Exchange RNS and Investegate, and more junior mining and resources coverage sits alongside this report.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Photo: Jingming Pan on Unsplash.
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