Diamond explorer Stellar Diamonds (LON:STEL) has completed resource drilling of the Droujba kimberlite pipe in Guinea and will start bulk sample processing next month, it said today.
Stellar added it remains on track for a JORC compliant resource estimate for both Droujba and also the Tongo project, in Sierra Leone, by the end of the first quarter of 2012.
Some 31 holes for 7,457.15m were drilled into the Droujba pipe with the deepest intersection some 414m below surface. Stellar said the pipe remained open at depth.
Karl Smithson, chief executive, said the bulk sampling will mean a representative parcel of diamonds for grade and value estimation can be produced.
“Initial indications from processed diluted stockpiled overburden are encouraging and demonstrate potential for a coarse diamond size distribution for the pipe, though this is based on the relatively small diamond parcel produced to date,” he added.
The overburden samples found 176 diamonds totalling 56.67 carats of diamond, giving an average stone size of 0.32 per carat, though nine stones weighed over one carat, with the largest diamonds being 4.28, 4.18, 2.76, 2.71 and 1.94 carats in size.
Approximately 23 per cent of the diamonds were of gem quality, although the parcel was not sufficiently large to provide a representative diamond valuation at this stage, Stellar said.
Droujba is the larger of Stellar’s two main prospects. Discovered in the 1960s by the Russians, it was only mined down to 20 metres as it was believed there was nothing below that depth.