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(Sharecast News) - Karelian Diamond Resources announced on Tuesday that the geophysical interpretation of drone-based aeromagnetic data had identified 23 kimberlite targets up-ice of the green diamond discovery in till it previously made.
The AIM-traded firm said it had retained Jeremy S. Brett International Consulting to interpret the drone aeromagnetic data on the licence property, where the green diamond was discovered in the Kuhmo region of Eastern Finland.
A detailed high-resolution drone-based magnetic survey was carried out by Radai Oy, in which 82 flight lines totalling 250 kilometres were flown over the area.
The company said the geophysical interpretation by Brett, which led to the identification of 12 kimberlite targets in the area, was conducted on the data generated from the survey.
It said the kimberlite targets were reported as ranging from 0.5 hectares to 4.7 hectares in size, and "with a high ratio of highly ranked targets" based on their magnetic signature.
Previous work on the licence area included kimberlite indicator mineral sampling, during which the green diamond was discovered.
Further kimberlite indicator mineral sampling encountered "highly anomalous" kimberlite indicators, including G9 and G10 garnets, which the firm said were "known indicators" of diamond prospectivity.
Follow-up drilling resulted in the discovery of a kimberlite dyke, confirming the presence of kimberlites in the immediate area, as Karelian announced on 6 December 2018.
The interpretation by Brett also highlighted potential underlying structural controls to the emplacement of kimberlite bodies, which could be applied in a wider context to the overall Kuhmo region.
Follow-up work on the 23 kimberlite targets identified would start "in the near future", with further updates set to be issued by the company in due course.
"These exciting results in an area where we have already discovered a green diamond in till are a very significant encouragement in our quest to discover the origin of the green diamond or any other diamond deposits in the area, and in our overall objective of discovering, in the Finnish sector of the Karelian Craton, diamond deposits comparable to the world class diamond discoveries of Lomonosov and the Grib pipe in the Russian sector of the Craton," said chairman Richard Conroy.
At 1137 BST, shares in Karelian Diamond Resources were up 7.86% at 2.54p.
Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.