LONDON (ShareCast) - Finland-focused explorer Karelian Diamond Resources has unearthed highly prospective minerals from its Riihivaara target, indicating a diamondiferous source nearby.
The AIM-listed company said laboratory results from a sample collected at Riihivaara in the Kuhmo region had high concentrations of kimberlitic indicator minerals (KIMs).

The sample had more than 100 KIMs, including 48 purple to red peridotitic garnets (G9/10) and 46 orange mantle garnets which are 0.25 to 0.5mm in size, plus five purple to red peridotitic garnets (G9/10) and three orange mantle garnets in the 0.5 to 1.0mm size range.

"G9/10 garnets are considered significant as they are formed at the same temperatures and pressures as diamonds," the company said.

"Orange mantle garnets can include eclogitic pyrope-almandine garnets (G3) and if eclogite mantle materials are present it is significant, as it tends to be associated with richer diamond grades."

Historically, high numbers of KIMs in the Kuhmo region have seen either directly over or within a hundred metres of a kimberlite source, which often contain diamonds.

Chairman Richard Conroy said: "We have for some time been following up the diamondiferous kimberlitic indicator mineral trains that we have discovered on our Riihivaara target. We now appear to be getting very close to or immediately over the source."

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