Karelian Diamond Resources plc has received an an exploration permit in the Kuhmo region of Finland from TUKES (The Finnish Mining Authority) for a period of four years, thus giving it the exclusive right to apply for a mining permit in the region.

The permit covers an area of 601.68 ha surrounding the location where the Company discovered a green diamond in till earlier this year.

A few days earlier, Karelian had said that it had begun an extensive work programme to find the source of the green diamond. The programme will take forward the discovery of  high kimberlite indicator minerals  counts recently reported, which had considerably narrowed down the search area.

The objective of the programme is to locate the kimberlite body from which the green diamond originated, identify the kimberlite train and follow it back to source.

The work includes a systematic excavator pit programme for till sampling and bedrock identification together with analysis of airborne geophysics and a ground geophysical survey as well as analyses by Scanning Electron Microscopy of previously taken samples showing high indicator counts for precise classification.

Professor Richard Conroy, Chairman, Karelian Diamond Resources plc commented, “I am very pleased that we have been granted an exploration permit surrounding the location of our significant discovery of a green diamond and look forward to continued results from the Company’s exploration programme in the region.”