Sampling from Stellar Diamonds' Droujba kimberlite pipe in southeast Guinea have yielded "encouraging" initial diamond recoveries, and the pipe has the potential to be "significantly diamondiferous," CEO Karl Smithson says.

The drill core samples turned up 538 diamonds from 291 kilos of kimberlite. Five of the diamonds were commercial-sized (over .85 mm). The largest diamond recovered in the sample measures 5.6mm X 2.8mm X 1.8 mm.

"It is encouraging to not only see a large number of diamonds recovered, but also to confirm the presence of commercial-sized stones in the relatively small sample processed," Smithson noted.

In December, the company announced that three drill holes at Droujba had confirmed the site's kimberlite depth to 120 meters and that the first batch of drill core had been sent to Canada to be analyzed for the presence of microdiamonds.



Stellar Diamonds owns a number of diamond projects in West Africa, two of which are currently in production.



By June 28 of last year, the company's Mandala and Bomboko diamond mines, both in Guinea, produced 78,000 carats and 4,000 carats, respectively, of rough diamonds. The diamonds yielded provided over $2.7 million in revenue for Stellar Diamonds.



Both projects are being expanded with the goal of increasing diamond production.