Shear Minerals Ltd. (SRM:TSXV), Stornoway Diamond Corporation (SWY:TSXV) and BHP Billiton announced today that four new kimberlite pipes have been drilled in the second phase of this year's exploration program which began in August and is nearing completion. This brings the total number of
kimberlite pipes on the Churchill Diamond Project to 15 and has expanded the discovery area a further 15 km to the north. In addition, more than 25 high priority kimberlite targets have been identified from preliminary airborne magnetic data currently being collected on the Churchill Diamond Project.

The second phase drilling program was designed to test a variety of geophysical signatures in areas where favourable G10 pyrope geochemistry has been identified. Two of the four kimberlites are associated with strong magnetic lows identified from the new airborne data, one of which is located up-ice from an area where indicator minerals with diamond inclusion chemistry have been recovered. To date, all of the magnetic lows drilled on the property have been kimberlites.

Representative samples are being collected from the kimberlites and submitted for micro-diamond analysis to the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), an independent laboratory.

"The results from the airborne survey and the second phase of drilling have given us added confidence that we are in the early stages of delineating a large kimberlite field, said Pamela Strand, President and CEO of Shear Minerals. "Our challenge now is to identify the sources of the exceptional indicator minerals that have been recovered on the property."

The Churchill project encompasses more than 1.5 million acres located near the community of Rankin Inlet in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. Field programs currently underway include heavy minerals sampling, airborne and ground geophysics. The 2003 field program is under the supervision of Dean
Besserer, P. Geol. of APEX Geoscience Ltd., a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. Shear has a 51% interest and is operator on the Churchill Diamond Project. Stornoway Diamond Corporation and BHP Billiton have 35% and 14% interests respectively.

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