Karelian Diamond Resources Plc - Kimberlite Indicator Mineral Results

    28 February 2025

Karelian Diamond Resources PLC

("Karelian" or "the Company")

POSITIVE KIMBERLITE INDICATOR MINERAL RESULTS

• Kimberlite indicator minerals returned from nineteen till samples up-ice of the green diamond discovery site
• Three basal till samples and one surface-till sample highly anomalous
• Abundance of peridotitic garnets suggests close proximity to kimberlitic source
• Orange mantle garnets present

Karelian Diamond Resources PLC ("Karelian Diamonds") (AIM: KDR) is pleased to announce that the Company has received positive kimberlite indicator minerals ("KIMs") results from Overburden Drilling Management Limited ("ODM"), a Canadian based technical services company, in relation to till samples excavated at the Company's green diamond target area in the Kuhmo region of Eastern Finland.

The twenty-one sampling locations were all up-ice of the green diamond previously discovered by the Company (as announced on 31 January 2017), covering an area as close as possible to the presumed kimberlitic source zone, along the kimberlite indicator mineral train.

These results, in combination with previous KIM results, support the targeting of the recent semi-airborne UAV-based electromagnetic anomaly (as announced by the Company on 24 January 2025) as a potential source of the green diamond.

The KIMs were discovered in nineteen of the twenty-one till samples. A total of seventy-four purple to red peridotitic garnets (G9/G10 pyropes), nine of which in the large range (0.5 to 1.0 mm size), two orange mantle garnets, four chrome diopsides and eighty-one chromites were discovered.

The highest KIM counts were achieved in three highly anomalous basal till samples, containing a total of fifty-nine purple to red peridotitic garnets, two orange mantle garnets and nineteen chromites. The fourth-best KIM count was achieved in a surface till sample, also including one pyrope of the large range.

Partial alteration mantles, referred to as "kelyphitic rims", were present on fifteen peridotitic garnets of the three highly anomalous basal till samples. The kelyphitic rims indicate a relatively short transportation distance from a kimberlitic source, as do the number and size of peridotitic garnets in the same basal till samples as well as in one surface till sample.

One highly anomalous sample contained orange mantle garnets which are likely to be eclogitic, based on the results of adjacent samples taken in 2023. Eclogitic garnets tend to be associated with better diamond grades. All the garnets will be tested by electron microprobe for further classification.

Till locating any further up-ice cannot be sampled by excavation because the thickness of overburden, especially peat on top of till, increases considerably in a swampy area to the north-west of the last sampling point. As a result, the most necessary next step is to drill. Combined with the recent results of the semi-airborne UAV-based electromagnetic survey, the kimberlite indicator mineral analysis, updated with the current results, significantly limits the area to be targeted for drilling.

Maureen Jones, Managing Director of Karelian Diamond Resources PLC, commented:

"We are very encouraged by further excellent kimberlite indicator mineral results highlighting the recently electromagnetic anomaly as a potential source of the green diamond." 

Further Information:

http://www.kareliandiamondresources.com