Sant Uk.10te% Regulatory News (SAN)

12 Sep 2005 11:24

Sanatana Diamonds Inc12 September 2005 SANATANA DIAMONDS INC Shares Outstanding: 33,606,794Trading Symbol: AIM:SAN SANATANA UPDATES 2005 EXPLORATION PROGRAM AND ANNOUNCES FURTHER KENNECOTTFINANCING Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Monday, September 12, 2005. SanatanaDiamonds Inc ("Sanatana") (AIM:SAN) is pleased to provide an update on the 2005Exploration Program currently being carried out over Sanatana's 20 million acreMackenzie Diamond Project ("Project") located north of Great Bear Lake andapproximately 700 kilometers northwest of the town of Yellowknife, in theNorthwest Territories of Canada and to announce that Kennecott ExplorationCanada Inc.("Kennecott") has made a $2.5 million contribution towards the 2005Exploration Program. The 2005 Exploration Program consists of two components: • Airborne Geophysical Surveys• Field Exploration Program Airborne Geophysical Surveys Sanatana plans to cover the majority of the 20 million acre Mackenzie DiamondProject with an airborne magnetic survey flown at lines spacings ofapproximately 400 meters apart at an elevation of approximately 80 meters aboveground level. The planned 210,000 line kilometer survey is one of the largestprivate airborne geophysical surveys to be carried out in North America in thelast decade. • Southern Area Survey. This airborne survey commenced in May 2005 and is approximately 60% complete. The contract to undertake this survey was awarded to Goldak Geophysical Surveys of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan • Northern Area Survey. This airborne survey commenced in July 2005 and is approximately 30% complete. The contract to undertake this survey was awarded to Firefly Aviation Inc of Calgary Alberta. Interpretation of the data collected from the airborne surveys has commenced atthe Perth, Western Australia office of Geoinformatics Exploration Inc(TSX-Venture: GXL). A number of geophysical anomalies have been identified thatcould potentially indicate kimberlite pipes. These geophysical anomalies will befollowed up as part of the Summer Exploration Program described below. The budgeted expenditure for the airborne geophysical surveys is $3 million. Summer 2005 Field Exploration Program Sanatana commenced its Summer 2005 Field Exploration Program in early July 2005.A total of 2000 till samples were planned to follow up a number of prospectivediamond bearing target areas. These target areas are based on a combination ofthe results of the analysis generated by Geoinformatics of the geophysical datacollected to date and by the recovery of diamond indicator minerals in the 2004Field Exploration Program Field crews have collected over 1,500 till samples ina program of closely spaced sample locations to date and these have been shippedto the Kennecott Diamond Laboratory in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada forprocessing. All the till samples are expected to be received by the Thunder Baylaboratories by the end of September 2005. Crews are planning to undertakeground geophysical surveys in areas which have indicated potentially diamondbearing kimberlites. These ground geophysical surveys will assist in thelocation of drill targets for a drill program that is planned in 2006.Applications will be made in the near future for drilling permits for thesedrill targets. Geoinformatics have planned and managed the Summer Exploration Program pursuantto its Exploration Management Agreement with Sanatana The budgeted expenditure for the 2005 Summer Exploration Program is $3.2 million Kennecott contributes $2.5 million exploration funding. Pursuant to the Exploration and Development Project Agreement between Sanatanaand Kennecott, Sanatana has received a payment in August 2005 of $2.5 milliontowards the 2005 Exploration Program. Qualified Persons The Sanatana exploration programs are carried out under the supervision ofSanatana's VP Exploration, Mr. Buddy Doyle. Mr. Doyle meets the qualified personrequirements (as defined by National Instrument 43-101) with more than 25 yearsof experience in the gold and diamond exploration industry. Sanatana is a Canadian diamond company focused on the exploration anddevelopment of its 20 million acre Mackenzie Diamond Project located north ofGreat Bear Lake and approximately 700 kilometers northwest of the town ofYellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada Sanatana is listed on the London AIM market. For further information about Sanatana, please visit the Sanatana's website at: www.sanatanadiamonds.com Or Contact: E-mail investor@sanatanadiamonds.com Glenn Laing Peter Miles President and CEO Executive VP E-mail: glaing@sanatanadiamonds.com E-mail: pmiles@sanatanadiamonds.comTel:(905)399-3459 Fax: (905) 338-8019 Tel :(604)880-5307 Fax :(604) 684-9277 London, England PR:Laurence Read/ AmandaConduit PRTel: + 44 (0) 20 7936 9095 Mob: +44 (0) 781 215 9885 Email:amanda@conduitpr.com London, Nominated Adviser:Louis CastroInsinger de BeaufortTel: + 44 (0) 20 7190 7000 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange