Stornoway Diamond Corporation (SWY:TSX) is pleased to provide the following update on our Canadian diamond exploration activities.
A series of kimberlite targets will be drill tested during 2006 either by Stornoway as operator or by one of our joint venture partners. Following is a list of planned exploration activities, including Stornoway's interest and an approximate start date where available.
The exploration program on the 70% owned Aviat property will commence in mid-May with a spring ground geophysical and drill program targeting the as yet un-drilled AV7 body, as well as other lake based targets within the Tremblay indicator mineral corridor. Prospecting activities will commence once snow cover has receded and will immediately focus on nine priority till anomalies identified from the 2004 regional till sampling and the 2005 detailed follow-up till sampling. These priority areas contain chrome rich, high interest G10 pyrope garnet chemistry suggesting derivation from the diamond stability field and are not associated with any of the known kimberlite bodies. Processing of the 2005 till samples is not yet complete, and new areas of interest may well be identified for ground follow-up. The budget for this year's program has not yet been finalized but is expected to be similar to the 2005 budget of $7.25 million.
The 100% owned Hudson Project is situated in northern Manitoba and comprises 12 target specific mineral exploration licenses totaling about 210,000 acres. Most of the targets being considered for drilling in the current program (commencing mid April of 2006) lie between the towns of Gillam and Churchill, just west of Hudson Bay, within 25km of both an active railroad and a power transmission line. Detailed geophysical surveys have been completed and land access permits have been received. Elsewhere in Manitoba Stornoway has relinquished its interest in the Manitoba Highlands property.
Shear Minerals has announced plans to drill on the Churchill Property as soon as weather conditions permit access, estimated at late April (35% Stornoway). This drilling will initially focus on two anomalies in the vicinity of a high interest kimberlite indicator mineral dispersal train in the Sedna Corridor from which one till sample yielded estimated total grain counts of ~32,500 pyropes, ~11,600 ilmenites and ~7,100 chromites (See Shear Mineral's Press Release of February 21, 2006 for more details).
Stornoway has applied for drilling permits on the MIP Project (50% Stornoway), situated on Baffin Island, with the goal of following-up targets identified during the original 2005 program (See Press Release 06-03 from February 13, 2006 for more details).
In the fall of 2005, Stornoway drilled on the LDG Property in the Lac De Gras area of the Northwest Territories (Stornoway's maximum interest 60%) Several of the targets could not be tested at that time since they were under a large lake. Stornoway will attempt to drill two targets this spring while ice remains on the lake. Opportunites to test the Daring Lake property, situated immediately west of the Ekati Diamond Mine landholdings (Stornoway's maximum interest 60%) may present themselves during the summer of 2006.
Other drill opportunities are being investigated at the present time but are also contingent on logistical and permitting considerations.
Recent Land Acquisitions and Other Activities
As a result of generative exploration activities undertaken in 2005, Stornoway continues to acquire new landholdings targeted at specific areas of interest. To date some 1.3 million acres of new 100% owned ground have been acquired in various parts of Canada, including 133,000 acres in six townships situated in the northern part of the Buffalo Head Hills, Alberta (the Heinz Project). Airborne geophysical surveys will commence over newly acquired ground in early April (e.g. the Eetsee, Blackstone, Shegonla and Heinz projects) with sampling as weather conditions allow.
Land acquisition will continue as additional results from the 2005 generative program become available. Small ‘mini-bulk' samples of kimberlitic material collected during 2005 remain to be processed through Stornoway's DMS plant once the Aviat AV2 through AV8 samples have been completed.
Stornoway has commenced their 2006 generative diamond exploration activities which will include airborne and ground geophysical surveys, indicator mineral sampling and the collection of rock for diamond extraction through both caustic and DMS processing techniques.
All DMS and caustic fusion work will be carried out at Microlithics Laboratories in Thunder Bay, Ontario, an independent mineral process laboratory currently providing services exclusively to Stornoway and its affiliates. Stornoway's diamond exploration programs are conducted under the direction of Robin Hopkins, P.Geol. (NT/NU), a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.
On behalf of the Board
STORNOWAY DIAMOND CORPORATION
/s/ "Eira Thomas"
Eira Thomas
President