Sunrise Diamonds Update

Tertiary Minerals PLC 02 June 2005 The following announcement was made by our 26.5p.c. owned associate Sunrise Diamonds Plc earlier today. 'SUNRISE FOR DIAMOND FLOAT AIM LISTING TO FUND EXPLORATION OF CLUSTER OF KIMBERLITES FOUND IN 'DIAMOND WINDOW' OF FINLAND • Spin-Off From Tertiary Makes Its Debut On June 6 • Main Prospects Include Three Kimberlites And 45 Untested Targets • Chairman Has 8p.c Interest In Company • Karelian Craton Favoured As One Of Best Areas For Diamonds In World ________________________________________________________________________________ Sunrise Diamonds is to test a new cluster of kimberlites discovered in the 'diamond window' of Finland. The spin-off from Tertiary Minerals plc, which lists on AIM on June 6, has raised just over £700,000 to fund its search of the Karelian Craton which experts regard as and one of best areas in the world for diamonds. A total £400,000 was raised mainly from Tertiary shareholders on a 'seedcorn' subscription basis at 1p per share and a further £307,500 last week from institutions and investors at 2p per share with a half warrant to subscribe for additional shares at 3p per share in Year 1 or 5p per share in Year 2. Tertiary retains a 26.53p.c. stake in the company which with 75.37m shares on listing has a capitalisation of £1.51m at issue price. Sunrise chairman, Mr. Patrick Cheetham (who also chairs Tertiary) and his wife have jointly bought 6m shares at 1p and the two non-executive directors have also each bought 500,000 shares. Published geochemical data on indicator minerals suggest that the 'diamond window' beneath central Finland may be 90km or more thick - on a par or greater than other cratons in the world containing economic diamond deposits because of its situation within a thick, cool continental crust. Kimberlites are widely distributed in the Karelian and a higher-than-average percentage contain diamonds. Project manager of Sunrise is Andrew Dixon, 45, a mineral processing engineer, who has held plant supervisory and management positions with De Beers, Argyle Diamond Mines, Trans Hex and Ashton Diamonds. Non-executive director Neil Herbert is currently finance director of Kalahari Diamonds, and formerly CFO of AIM-listed Brancote Holdings until its US$368m takeover in 2002, and Patagonia Gold from listing in 2003 to its sale nine months later. Fellow non-executive Francis Johnstone is currently commercial director of AIM-listed Ridge Mining and a non-executive director of Brazilian Diamonds Ltd which is actively exploring a number of diamondiferous kimberlites in Brazil. SUNRISE - 2 Draig Mineral Developments, the independent expert, reporting on Sunrise prospects say its main Kuusamo project area is on the southern margin of a province that stretches for over 1,000km from Northern Finland through the diamond bearing regions of Kandalaksha, Terskii Bereg, Arkhangelsk and Central Timan in north west Russia. The largest economic deposits have been found in the Arkhangelsk region, including the Lomonosov diamond mine run by Alrosa and the highly diamondiferous Grib pipe. Geological conditions considered necessary for formation and preservation of diamondiferous kimberlites occur in the area, states Draig, and the kimberlites have tapped the diamond stability field of the earth's mantle and have not been affected by the diamond destroying processes of high temperatures. Initial work will be at the three Kuusamo kimberlites discovered last year in a previously unknown cluster and the testing of 45 newly defined targets in the same area of the Karelian Craton. This will involve ground magnetics, deep till sampling, and diamond drilling followed by micro-diamond analysis. There is speculation that the age of some of the Kuusamo kimberlites may be similar to those found near Arkhangelsk in Russia. Further Information: Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: +44 (0) 1625-626203 Ron Marshman/John Greenhalgh, City of London PR Limited. Tel: 020-7628-5518' This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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