Arctic Star Exploration Corp announced the discovery of two new kimberlites; made as a result of trenching work by excavator undertaken at its Timantti project in Finland.

The newly discovered kimberlites, located near the Vasa dykes – also discovered by Arctic Star by excavator in 2018 – are situated two kilometres north of the company’s three Wolf kimberlites (Black, Grey and White Wolf).  

The recent work exposed two new “heavily weathered clayey kimberlite bodies both less than 1.5 metres from the land surface in a heavily forested area”, the Company said.

The two bodies named Plug and Karhu (“bear” in Finnish) are located approximately 140 metres and 450 metres, respectively, west of the Vasa dyke discoveries and do not appear to be physically connected to these dykes.

While the Karhu discovery has been confirmed as kimberlitic by scientists of the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), engaged by the company to assist in the exploration programme; final confirmation and results of the laboratory analysis of the Plug body are awaited.

“The Karhu body comprises yellowish coloured clayey kimberlite (yellow ground) and had previously been identified as a target in the detailed ground magnetic surveys undertaken by the company’s geophysical consultants,” the Company revealed. “This yellow ground is very similar to that encountered at the Wolf Pack bodies to the south. The GTK scientists have confirmed the presence of garnets and pseudomorphs of olivine in the sample.”

The Company added: “The yellow clayey material recovered from the Plug body appears to be identical to that found at Karhu and the company geologists are confident this is also a new kimberlite discovery.”

The Company feels that these new discoveries “further serve to confirm” that Arctic Star is dealing with multiple kimberlite occurrences in a field and that it “bodes well for more discoveries”.

The Company has announced that the current excavator work will continue into early August and will be followed up with ground geophysics and drilling; and also that it will continue to search for additional kimberlites.

Arctic Star also plans to define the size, shape and diamond content (with caustic fusion analysis) of these latest discoveries.

Buddy Doyle said, “I continue to be amazed that we can discover kimberlites using the very inexpensive excavator technique. This is the most efficient diamond exploration work I have been involved with in my 38 years of looking for economic diamond deposits. I thank our team in Finland led by Roy Spencer for their continued efforts.”