DIAMOND EXPLORATION NEWS Band-Ore Starts Drilling near Timmins

WAWA, Ontario As mentioned earlier, our diamond industry is growing not only in production but also in potential. Northern Ontario is also under scrutiny. BAND-ORE RESOURCES of Burlington, Ont., has sent two 20-tonne mini-bulk samples from its GQ property to De Beers for dense media separation processing. The property has yielded over 20,000 microdiamonds and 340 macrodiamonds in previous testing.

Prospector Joe Leadbetter found an alluvial, gem-quality diamond weighing 1.39 carats in the area late last year. His photo and the story that appeared in The Sault Star are accessible from www.band-ore.com.

Band-Ore is also drilling its 100%-owned Thorn gold property near Timmins. In 1998 an independent consultant established an inferred resource of approximately 4 million tonnes grading 3 g/t in 13 zones grading 1.7 g/t to 18 g/t gold.