Stellar Diamonds announced on Monday its intention to fast-track development of its kimberlite diamond projects, www.mineweb.com reports.

The global rebound in diamond industry prices, as well as record results from a tender of diamonds recovered from the company's Bomboko project in Guinea ($201/carat), have prompted the board of directors to funnel Stellar's human and financial resources into accelerating the development of the Droujba kimberlite pipe in Guinea and the Tongo kimberlite in Sierra Leone.

Recent drilling at the Droujba pipe indicated that the site has a number of hallmarks of a "significant" kimberlite pipe containing commercial-sized stones. Testing at the Tongo project has reported a potential value of $169/carat for stones recovered at the site.

This month, Stellar Diamonds has sold 10,048 carats of diamonds for a total of $361,500. The majority of the stones tendered were recovered from the Mandala alluvial diamond project in Guinea, with 281 carats of diamonds from Bomboko. The Bomboko diamonds included a number of high-value stones of 2-4 carats.