Drilling Update

Sunrise Diamonds PLC
20 July 2006


                              SUNRISE DIAMONDS PLC

                            www.sunrisediamonds.com

20 July 2006


                   CORE DRILLING RESUMES AT LAMPI KIMBERLITE

                 TO COLLECT LARGER SAMPLE FOR DIAMOND ANALYSIS


   • Five Micro-Diamonds Recovered From Earlier Drill Sample

   • Latest Drilling Will Also Test Shape And Size Of Diamondiferous
     Kimberlite

________________________________________________________________________________

Sunrise Diamonds plc ('Sunrise' or 'the Company') is pleased to announce that it
has commenced further core drilling at its Lampi kimberlite, the Company's most
recent discovery at the Kuusamo cluster in northern Finland, with the objective
of recovering a kimberlite sample of at least 200kg - twenty times the size of
the diamondiferous sample from the discovery hole. The drilling will also test
the shape and size of the diamondiferous kimberlite body and better indicate its
commercial potential.

Last month, Sunrise announced that five micro-diamonds had been recovered from
an initial 10kg drill sample from Lampi following caustic dissolution at the
independent Kennecott Canada Exploration laboratory in Canada. Logging of the
drill core showed that two phases of kimberlite were present beneath 15m of
glacial till, with the diamondiferous phase starting at a down-hole depth of 49m
and continuing to the end of the hole at 55m.

The Company anticipates that diamond analysis results from the current drilling
programme will be available in October.

Lampi, which means 'small lake' in Finnish, is the seventh kimberlite discovered
by Sunrise in the Kuusamo area, three of which have been confirmed as
diamondiferous. The Kuusamo cluster lies within the Karelian Craton, the ancient
geological block which extends from Finland into neighbouring Russia where it
hosts world-class diamond deposits in the Arkhangelsk region.


Further Information:

Patrick Cheetham, Sunrise Diamonds plc. Tel: [phone]. Mobile: +44 (0)
7767-45875 or

John Greenhalgh/Ron Marshman, City of London PR Ltd. Tel: +44 ( 0)20-7628-5518

The information in this release has been compiled and reviewed by Mr. Patrick
Cheetham (MIMMM, MAusIMM) who is a qualified person for the purposes of the AIM
Guidance Note for Mining Oil & Gas Companies issued on March 16, 2006. Mr
Cheetham is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining and also a
member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.




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