Karelian Diamond Resources plc announced yesterday that a diamond had been discovered in one of seven samples from the Kuhmo region of Eastern Finland during sampling undertaken by the Geological Survey of Finland on its behalf.

The Company said that the diamond is a clear, pale green dodecahedron and measures 0.7 x 0.75 x 0.7 mm. It said that the discovery was significant given the high concentrations of Kimberlitic Indicator Minerals discovered in the area. Together, both these discoveries strongly suggest that a diamondiferous kimberlite is present, the Company added.

As a comparison, it pointed out that the ODM laboratory in Canada, which processed many samples in the initial diamond rush in that country in the 1990s and 2000s, recovered less than 10 naturally occurring diamonds, though it had processed more than 50,000 exploration till samples.

The KIMs include 13 purple to red peridotitic garnets (G9/10 Cr-pyrope), 3 orange mantle garnets, 2 Crdiopside and 178 chromite grains in the 0.25 to 0.5 mm size range, plus 1 purple to red peridotitic garnet (G9/10 Cr-pyrope) and 6 chromite grains in the 0.5 to 1.0 mm size range. Karelian said.

The samples will go for further analysis, Karelian said.

Karelian chairperson Richard Conroy commented on the discovery: “This is very exciting news to find such a diamond in till which is a very rare event and makes me very excited about the potential of the area and the discovery of the source of this diamond.”