Stellar Diamonds, a company focused on West Africa, has recovered 970 diamonds from 199kg of kimberlite material from drilling and bulk sampling on the Droujba kimberlite project in Guinea.

The 970 diamonds were larger than the 0.075mm sieve size that were recovered from both samples, with twenty diamonds being larger than the 0.85mm sieve size and weighing 1.07 carat from the combined 199kg of kimberlite (a type of rock known to sometimes contain diamonds). The kimberlite samples yielded an average of 4.88 diamonds per kilogram of kimberlite.

Chief Executive Karl Smithson said: "The abundance of micro and macro diamonds in drill and bulk samples submitted and particularly the presence of twenty diamonds in the commercial size fractions confirm that the Katcha kimberlite dyke has the potential to be significantly diamondiferous at depth. We recently announced a highly encouraging surface bulk sample grade of 161cpht from Katcha and these microdiamond results will be used to model the continuity of grade with depth of the kimberlite.

"The high grade and considerable 5km strike length of the Katcha dyke demonstrates its potential to add significantly to the already defined 2.5 million carat resource base from the adjacent Droujba kimberlite pipe.

"Whilst at a relatively earlier stage, we anticipate a small portion of the Katcha kimberlite to be brought into the global resource category for the Droujba project. The independent resource statement for Droujba is on track to be delivered during this quarter."

The current 2.5m carat inferred resource statement for Droujba is in the process of independent revision to incorporate new bulk sampling results from the Droujba and Katcha kimberlites and is scheduled to be delivered during the fourth quarter of 2012.

The share price rose 4% to 3.25p by 08:39.

NR

Related share prices
Stellar Diamonds (STEL) share price