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Snowfield Development Corp. ("Snowfield") has initiated bulk sample site preparation and trenching at their Ticho Diamond Project located 55 km south east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The Mud Lake kimberlite sill, discovered by Snowfield in the winter-spring of 2003, has proven to be diamondiferous (NR06-04) and is now being sampled to further quantify the commercial potential of this sill. Upon completion of the extraction of up to 500 tonnes of kimberlite, the extracted material will be shipped to De Beers Canada Exploration's Dense Media Separation Plant located at Grande Prairie, Alberta for processing. As previously announced,(NR05-10), De Beers has offered and Snowfield has accepted the offer to process this bulk sample at no cost to and with no obligation from Snowfield. After further discussions with De Beers following a review of the caustic fusion results (NR06-04), management is very encouraged by the potential of Mud Lake kimberlite and is proceeding as expeditiously as possible to extract this bulk sample.
Site clearing and trenching commenced over the weekend of March 18th, 2006. The trenching is designed to expose the kimberlite at the point of its sub-crop under approximately 11 meters of glacial overburden. If ground water conditions permit, the exposed kimberlite will then be extracted for onward shipping and processing. Snowfield has hired Mr. Dave Nickerson, M. Sc., P. Eng., to be the Engineer of Record for the taking of the bulk sample
As announced in NR06-08, Snowfield hired RTL-Robinson Enterprises Ltd. ("RTL-Robinson") of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to construct an access ice road down Great Slave Lake and on to the site of the bulk sample. RTL-Robinson is one of Canada's most experienced winter road constructors and Snowfield was very pleased to have this important component of the bulk sampling procedure in such competent hands. On March 13, 2006 RTL-Robinson notified Snowfield that they had completed construction of the road and had profiled the ice to determine the thickness. The final route selected for the road involved a detour of approximately 15 km to avoid pressure ridges and open leads.
The first equipment transported to the site on Monday March 13, 2006 was a Caterpillar D4 dozer for construction of the final land leg of the access road. On Tuesday, March 14, 2006 a tractor-trailer unit transporting a large tracked excavator was approximately half way to the site when a structural weakness was encountered in the ice. The load proved too great for the bearing capacity of the ice and the tractor-trailer unit and accompanying excavator broke through and sank in approximately 20 meters of water. It is a testament to RTL-Robinson's competence that no one was injured in this event.
Drilling will continue to delineate the extent of the Mud Lake kimberlite sill while management actively pursues the hiring of a second drill crew to explore targets newly identified to the north and east of Mud Lake.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Robert T. Paterson"
President
SNOWFIELD DEVELOPMENT CORP.
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