Karelian reports positive results from boulder testing

Finland-focused diamond exploration company Karelian Diamond Resources announced on Thursday that it has received further results and a report from the Geological Survey of Finland on the kimberlite boulder discovery made 2.5km south west of the Lahtojoki Diamond Deposit, which shows that the boulder is derived from an undiscovered kimberlite.

The AIM-traded firm said thin section and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) work provides textural and elemental information of the boulder sample.

It said the thin section of the boulder proves the sample to be an altered hypabyssal kimberlite.

The location of the boulder could have potentially been the result of an older south-south west ice flow direction transporting a block of material from the Lahtojoki kimberlite to the boulder discovery location.

However, given that Lahtojoki is a diatreme filled with tuffisitic or tuffisitic breccia kimberlite, Karelian said it is clear this boulder material is not derived from the Lahtojoki pipe.

It added that the most likely explanation for the source of the boulder is that it is derived from an undiscovered kimberlite up ice from the initial discovery site.

Previous work on the mantle-derived indicator mineral compositions from the boulder material indicates a similar Archean diamond-bearing mantle has been sampled by this kimberlite.

“This information offers the prospect of there being a new additional undiscovered kimberlite in the vicinity of the Lahtojoki Mining Permit which has a mineral composition indicating that it has sampled the diamond-bearing mantle,” said Karelian chairman Richard Conroy.

“This is very exciting indeed and, as hoped, significantly increases the attractiveness of the Lahtojoki Diamond Deposit.”