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(Sharecast News) - Karelian Diamond Resources updated the market on its ongoing sampling programme in Northern Ireland on Thursday, confirming through indicator mineral and microprobe analysis results that its licensed area showed significant prospectivity for nickel, copper, and platinum group metals.
The AIM-traded firm said an exhaustive stream sampling programme saw the collection of 33 sediment samples across the three licences it held, encompassing an area of 750 square kilometres.
Averaging 18 kilograms per sample, they were sent to Overburden Drilling Management (ODM) in Canada, where they underwent a detailed mineral concentration and analysis process.
ODM, known for its contributions to global discoveries like the Voisey's Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in Labrador, Canada, employed its trademarked metamorphic-magmatic massive sulphide indicator minerals (MMSIM) technique to derive insights into the indicator mineralogy of the samples.
Karelian said the study yielded particularly enlightening data around a highly anomalous river catchment area, where five samples showed over 1,000 indicator minerals each.
The minerals primarily encompass chromite and forsterite, with chalcopyrite and gold grains also present.
Additional microprobe analysis of chromite grains from the 2021 programme demonstrated that four samples contained chromites with notably high zinc oxide values - a potential signature of sulphide-rich nickel-copper group element deposits.
Further attention was drawn to iron, nickel, and sulphur inclusions in numerous chromites, indicating significant nickel mineralisation within the area.
In light of the promising findings, Karelian said it planned a subsequent programme to delve deeper into the anomalous river catchment area.
That initiative, coupled with further microprobe analysis, would discern one or more drilling targets, with the overarching objective of substantiating the area's potential for nickel, copper, and other valuable metals.
"I am very pleased that the company's exploration programme for nickel-copper-platinum group metals in Northern Ireland has yielded such encouraging results and we look forward greatly to the planned follow up work programme," said chairman Richard Conroy.
At 1008 BST, shares in Karelian Diamond Resources were down 11.14% at 3.51p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.