Karelian granted three new diamond reservations in Finland

Karelian Diamond Resources announced on Tuesday that the Finland mining authority, TUKES, has granted it three strategic diamond exploration reservations.

The AIM-traded firm said one of those, KDR-R1, is situated around its two hectare Lahtojoki kimberlite pipe diamond deposit, which is within the Kaavi kimberlite field.

It said the other two, KDR-R2 and KDR-R3, are in the Kuhmo kimberlite field target area, around its Riihivaara kimberlite discovery and its ‘anomaly 5’ target, where it previously discovered a green diamond in till.

All the reservations are in the Karelian Craton in Finland, where the company said it was actively working on the discovery and development of economic diamond deposits.

Following a review of airborne geophysics and past exploration data, the board decided to apply for the new diamond exploration reservations.

It said the reservations secured the adjacent ground to already held and known kimberlite bodies, which it explained was important as kimberlites tended to occur in clusters, and in both areas there were indications for the potential of new kimberlite discoveries.

At the same time, Karelian updated the market on the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, saying that since the outbreak, it has taken measures in accordance with government guidelines to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of its employees, contractors and partners in both Finland and Ireland.

It said the pandemic was currently restricting field and laboratory work in Finland, given the restrictions on operations and movement.

Other work related to its exploration and development programme was still ongoing, however.

“The granting of these Reservations by TUKES is a key step forward for Karelian Diamonds and we consider this to be extremely important in regard to our future development of the Lahtojoki diamond deposit where any additional resources identified could dramatically change the magnitude of the project, and also the advancement of our exploration programme in the company’s Kuhmo target area in what appears to be a new emerging kimberlite province,” said chairman Richard Conroy.

At 1414 BST, shares in Karelian Diamond Resources were down 11.76% at 3p.