Arctic Star Exploration Corp. announced that it has received results from research carried out at the University of Alberta by Dr. Luisa de Carvalho under the guidance of Thomas Stachel and Graham Pearson. The interpretation of the results are of soley the opinion of the company, however the authors agree it's a possible indication that larger gemstones will be present.

The diamonds recovered by caustic fusion from several drill holes were transferred to the University from the SRC laboratories in Saskatoon under an unbroken chain of custody. Seventy-three (73) of these diamonds were selected for further study based on their size (>700 µm; n = 51) or the presence of visible mineral inclusions (n = 22). The diamonds were analyzed for their nitrogen content and aggregation state and for their C and N isotope compositions.

Mineral inclusions from 224 diamonds were also analyzed. Of the studied diamonds, 27% are fragments, 26% are aggregates/twins, 18% are octahedra, 18% are rounded dodecahedra/resorbed, and 11% are macles. The colors of monocrystalline diamonds are mainly white (43%), pale yellow (48%), or brown (9%).

Six of the diamonds are fibrous, highly resorbed, and black/dark grey (n = 4), white (n = 1), and yellow (n = 1) in color. Study of the mineral inclusions shows that Sequoia kimberlites tapped both lithospheric and sub-lithospheric mantle sources of diamonds beneath the Slave Craton, with peridotite being the principal diamond-bearing substrate. Five of the diamonds belong to the sub-lithospheric suite based on the presence of ferropericlase ± olivine, breyite, or larnite ± olivine, mineral associations that only form under intense pressure.

The mineral inclusions were analyzed by Raman Spectroscopy. All of the diamonds classified as sub-lithospheric are either Type IaB or IIa. For the complete parcel of Sequoia diamonds studied, the analyses have revealed that 37% of the diamonds are sub-lithospheric in source, 26% are Type IIa (no detectable nitrogen), and 11% are Type IaB.