Helsinki: Karelian Diamond Resources, an Irish diamond exploration company focused on Finland, announced they had received results from sampling undertaken by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) which had been requested by the company. In one of the seven samples that had been analyzed, a diamond had been discovered from the Kuhmo region of Eastern Finland.

Chairman of Karelian Diamond Resources, Professor Richard Conroy said “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.”

The diamond is a clear pale green dodecahedron and measured 0.7 x 0.75 x 0.7 mm. According to the ODM laboratory, who have processed more than 50,000 Till samples, less than 10 naturally occurring diamonds have been discovered, proving how rare this find is. During the discovery process high concentrations of Kimberlitic Indicator Minerals (“KIMs”) were discovered suggesting that a diamondiferous kimberlite is present. The samples will continue to go through rigorous analysis.

Karelian focuses on the Finnish side of an Archean Craton which hosts Alrosa’s Lomonosova and Lukoil’s Grib mines in Russia. Karelian and its partner Rio Tinto are searching for something similar in Finland. In 2014 Karelian signed a confidentiality agreement with back-in rights with Rio Tinto. In return for Rio disclosing confidential information to Karelian, Rio has the right to earn 51% in any of Karelian’s projects in return for funding construction of a mine i.e. if any of Karelian’s projects end up being built by Rio, Karelian retains a 49% free carried interest to production. This agreement has been extended to 2020.