DIAMOND EXPLORATION – Stornoway/Shear complete acquisition of Churchill project

NUNAVUT - STORNOWAY DIAMOND of Vancouver and Edmonton-based SHEAR MINERALS have acquired all of BHP BILLITON DIAMOND's interest in the Churchill diamond project, pursuant to an April agreement. Stornoway and Shear each acquired half of the BHPB's 12.5% interest for the sum of $4 million each (cash and share issues). Stornoway and Shear now hold 41.86% and 58.14% interests, respectively, in the project; Shear is the operator.

The Churchill diamond project is comprised of mineral rights to more than 2 million acres located near the communities of Rankin Inlet and Chesterfield Inlet in the Kivalliq region. Work is presently focused on continued exploration of new promising indicator mineral trains and geophysical anomalies as well as the evaluation of four significantly diamond-bearing, vertically emplaced kimberlite dikes up to 4 m wide that have returned sampling grades up to 2.04 c/t. A 400-tonne minibulk sample collected from a series of surface pits at the Kahuna dike this past spring is now being processed for commercial-sized diamonds (greater than 0.85 mm on a square mesh sieve).

For a description and map of the Churchill projects visit www.shearminerals.com.