Adelaide, Oct 24, 2006 (ABN Newswire) - A major drilling programme at Paramount Mining Corporation Limited's (ASX: PCP)Ellendale Project in the north of Western Australia has confirmed the presence of lamproite, a rock type which can host diamonds, over a large surface area.

The ASX listed diamond explorer said today that, according to field interpretation, lamproite has been intersected in at least 25 holes of the 44-hole drilling programme completed this month. The body is estimated to be at least 15 hectares in surface area and, in two directions, is not closed off by the drilling.

The target area lies within Prospecting Licence P 04/ 198 (being converted to P 04/ 219), located on the southern margin of the Napier Range, near Carpenter Gap. The tenement is around 19 kilometres northeast of Kimberley Diamond Corporation's Ellendale Diamond Mine in the west Kimberley Province.

"The field results suggest one large body is present, as opposed to several smaller ones," Ms Maureen Muggeridge, Paramount's Chief Executive Officer said today. "This supports data from our 2005 high-resolution aerial magnetometry survey, which indicated the lamproite target may be larger than was interpreted from earlier work".

A number of drill samples were collected for analysis. Tests will include microscopic examination of drill chips, geochemical assaying and mineralogical analysis in order to determine the various lamproite phases present. Microdiamond analysis will be carried out on selected samples from the more diamond prospective phases such as tuffaceous ("fragmental") lamproite and material from certain marginal zones.

"Tuffaceous lamproite has already been identified in four holes from field observations," Ms Muggeridge said. "In each case several tens of metres of this material were intersected in the drill holes. In three cases the bottom of the hole was still in tuffaceous lamproite."