Karelian upbeat on positive kimberlite test results

Karelian Diamond Resources announced on Monday that it has received results for 22 samples from the ODM Laboratory showing “high concentrations” of kimberlite indicator minerals.

The AIM-traded firm said they were taken in the Kuhmo region in the target area around where the team previously discovered a diamond in a till sample, as reported on 31 January.

One of the new samples produced 36 KIMs, which comprised 10 purple-to-red peridotitic garnets, 19 chromite grains and one Fosterite grain in the 0.25 to 0.5 mm size range, plus three purple-to-red peridotitic garnet and three chromite grains in the 0.5 to 1.0 mm size range.

The Karelian board said those results suggested that the sample was within “a couple of hundred metres” of a kimberlite source, adding that two further samples down ice from that sample also had high KIMs of 20 and 22 respectively.

It said the anomaly had also been closed off 500m in an up-ice direction from the sample containing the 36 KIMs.

“I am delighted at these results, they confirm the prospect of another new kimberlite discovery by our team in the area where we discovered that beautiful green diamond we announced in January,” said Professor Richard Conroy, chairman of Karelian Diamond Resources.

The diamond discovered in January was in one of seven samples from the Kuhmo region of Eastern Finland.

At the time, Karelian described it as a “clear, pale green dodecahedron” which measured 0.7 x 0.75 x 0.7 mm.