October 14, 2009 Shear Minerals Ltd. (SRM:TSXV) (“Shear”) today announced that it has agreed to acquire from Kaminak Gold Corporation (“Kaminak”) all of the non diamond rights to the Churchill Diamond Project, Nunavut together with related datasets.

“This acquisition consolidates the mineral rights for the Churchill Diamond Project,” says Shear President and CEO Pamela Strand.  “Our shareholders will be able to share in the upside potential of any gold or nickel discovery during our diamond exploration.”

About Churchill’s Gold-Nickel Potential

The Churchill Property is underlain by a number of Archean greenstone belts in the Hearne sub-province of the Churchill Structural Province which are favorable for high grade gold and nickel deposits.  The nearby Meliadine Gold Trend is a multi million ounce lode gold deposit which is hosted by oxide iron formation.  The North Rankin nickel mine, upon which the town of Rankin Inlet was founded, contained Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization hosted in an Archean komatiitic sill. 

The most recent non-diamond exploration work done on the property was in June 2006 when Kaminak conducted a shallow five hole diamond drill program consisting of 457 metres testing three geophysical and geochemical targets.  This was the first ever drill program designed to evaluate the gold potential of Churchill Property and Kaminak intersected 7.06 g/t Au over a core length of 0.69m.  No gold exploration work has been completed on the property since 2006.

The planned work program by Shear will include a thorough in-house desktop compilation of all available data including geology, known showings, till sample assays and prospecting, followed by a 2010 prospecting program to follow-up priority anomalies with gold and nickel potential.

Terms of the Deal

The Churchill Diamond Project joint venture, currently owns the diamond rights on the Churchill Property and this agreement will harmonize the mineral rights on the project. The non-diamond rights to the Churchill Property were originally acquired by Kaminak from Shear in 2005 by plan of arrangement.  Shear has agreed to acquire a 100% interest in the non-diamond mineral rights to the Churchill Property and related datasets by issuing to Kaminak an aggregate of 3,000,000 common shares of Shear.  Kaminak will retain a 20% back-in-right to the non-diamond mineral rights of the Churchill Property, exercisable at anytime up to the completion of an independent bankable feasibility study in accordance with National Instrument 43-101.  The back-in right is exercisable by repayment at cost, of all non-diamond expenditures incurred by Shear within 90 days of the exercise of the back-in right.  Until the back-in right is exercised or terminated, Shear will provide Kaminak with annual summary reports on all non-diamond exploration work on the Churchill Property, which will include a detailed yearly accounting summary.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and a 30 day right of refusal in favour of Stornoway Diamond Corp. to acquire its pro-rata share (37.7%) of the non-diamond rights.

The Churchill Diamond Project is owned approximately 62.3% by Shear and 37.7% by Stornoway and is comprised of the diamond rights to more than 760,000 acres located near the communities of Rankin Inlet and Chesterfield Inlet in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut.  The main work at Churchill is presently focused on continued exploration for diamonds where a system of significantly diamond-bearing, vertically-emplaced kimberlite dykes that have returned sample grades of up to 2.18 carats per tonne.  The 2009 and 2010 field programs are under the supervision of Pamela Strand, P. Geol., a Qualified Person under NI 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.