The national school of diamond geology emerged in the Geological Committee in 1928 when the diamond research group headed by A. P. Burov was formed and began to work. The diamond geology development continued successfully within the walls of the committee’s successor – the All-Union and then the All-Russian Geological Research Institute of A. P. Karpinsky. For many years, the Institute's employees conducted scientific and regional minerogenic studies of diamondiferous provinces, created predictive maps of diamond potential in large regions, studied diamond collectors, diamond-associated minerals and specifically diamonds and diamond-bearing rocks, as well as supervised and directly participated in the diamond deposits prospecting. They discovered over a dozen primary and placer diamond deposits; six specialists of the Institute bear the honorary title “Discoverer of Deposits”. The article dedicated to the 70th anniversary of discovering the Zarnitsa kimberlite pipe provides a brief history of diamond geology at Karpinsky Institute from its inception up to the present day. It covers biographical essays on the Institute’s scientists and specialists, including those who continue to study diamond-bearing areas and search for new diamond deposits today.

There is specified structure and conditions of forming terrigenous diamond-bearing rocks within the territories of ancient platforms during the Preplatform, Protoplatform and Platform mega-stages of evolution. There are made conclusions about diamond placers and primary deposits potential. Stages of forming diamond-bearing rocks in the Phanerozoic are distinguished. The formation of dispersion halos of kimberlite indicator minerals varied in time on the Gondwana and Laurasia platforms. The exception is the Neogene-Quarternary stage, which manifested itself within all diamond provinces of the world. There are listed factors of forming commercial diamond placers during sedimentation of terrigenous diamond-bearing rocks.

The year of 2024 marks two anniversaries associated with the discovery of diamond deposits in the Russian Federation: the first diamond was found in Yakutia on the Sokolinaya spit on the Vilyuy River in 1949, and just 5 years later (in 1954) the first Zarnitsa kimberlite pipe was discovered. In a short time after these events, there were discovered almost all significant diamond deposits in Yakutia. The last discovery dates back to the mid-1990s. There are currently no objects for exploration. In order to identify new deposits, the authors propose to use the approaches outlined in the Methodological Recommendations for Diamond Deposits Prospecting developed by TsNIGRI. An example refers to the territory of the Olenek uplift of the Siberian platform where areas for geological exploration for diamonds are planned during forecasting and revision work.

The article considers the geochemistry of diamond-associated minerals of the Karowe (Botswana) and Zarnitsa (Russia) weakly diamondiferous pipes – deposits containing high-quality and costly giant CLIPPIR diamonds. There is applied a predictive method for geochemical analogy to the diamond-associated minerals compositions of such pipes, according to a probabilistic geostatistics-based approach (cluster analysis). The methods of 5Е diagrams for four diamond-associated minerals – pyropes, picroilmenites, chromites and chrome diopsides, and 4E diagrams for pyropes can predict large and giant “native” diamonds in weakly diamondiferous kimberlites at the stages of prospecting and exploring diamond deposits in promising regions of Russia and the world.

The article overviews ancient diamond placer deposits in Russia, established in coastal marine and continental sediments of different ages. The authors specify the structure, composition, diamond potential of commercial placers and the stages of their formation. The balance reserves of ancient diamond placers are to be located in the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and on a small scale in Perm Region. The Jurassic placers of short transfer from the Nakyn field kimberlite pipes are uniquely productive; the Carnian and Rhaetian sediments of the Upper Triassic on the northeastern Siberian platform have the greatest predictive potential.

An airborne geophysical survey in the eastern part of the Anabar Shield revealed local electrical conductivity anomalies similar to the electrical conductivity anomalies identified in Angola at the Quitubia mining site, with proven kimberlite magmatism and diamond potential. By analogy with the African anomalies, there is assumed their kimberlite nature. The researchers conducted ground-based geological and geophysical verification work on one of the local conductivity anomalies on the Anabar Shield, established its tubular nature and, possibly, kimberlite composition. The authors recommend a set of methods for verifying promising anomalies.

The article provides a brief description of the newly identified Akhtyl basanite-analcimite complex, as well as the Sertynya lamproite and Sylva fluidolite diamond-containing complexes, which are confined to the submeridional rift structures of the western and eastern borders of the Uralian orogeny. The author conducted a mineralogical and petrographic study of diamond-bearing alkalibasite rocks identified as lamproites, kersantites, analcimites, basanites, and fluidolites. He demonstrates their probable fluid-magmatic genesis, as indicated by both structural, textural and mineralogical features, including accessory minerals that indicate diamond potential, as well as the presence of drop-shaped elliptical segregations of volcanic glass, the pulp-like finely dispersed nature of the groundmass, and unsorted weakly rounded to sharply angular fragments of igneous and sedimentary rocks. The data obtained indicate the probable manifestation of alkali-basite and phreatic volcanism, which led to the transportation of diamonds and their satellites by fluidolites and lamproites to a weakened rift zone in the post-collisional subcontinental environment of the Early Mesozoic.

In 2021, new areas of areal and local water sources were recorded on the northern side of the Yubileinaya pipe quarry (Northern Yakutia). In winter, these areas formed thin areal ice, which negatively affects the stability of the quarry sides. During the opencast mining of the quarry, a number of natural and man-made factors encouraged the formation of a suprapermafrost non-through natural and man-made talik of fresh water genetically related to the waters of the seasonally thawed layer. The recorded changes in the cryohydrogeological conditions of the quarry field require a set of anti-icing measures including controlled water drainage to ensure safe operation of the deposit.

The study describes the work of the first geologists who discovered White Sea diamonds on the Winter coast of the White Sea. The Geologist N. F. Koltsov carried out prospecting works for rock salt in 1936 and discovered igneous rocks. The geophysicist, geologist, journalist and public figure M. А. Danilov spent 25 years (1962–1987) to prove availability of kimberlite pipes in this region and to convince the country leadership to start research works on this territory.

The article presents a scientific and methodological approach to assessing the morphometric parameters of the Tyumen Formation paleochannel systems (channel length, valley length, channel formation belt width), which is based on a specialized interpretation of threedimensional (3D) seismic exploration data. The morphometric parameters of the authors’ program developed in the Python programming language allow calculating the sinuosity coefficient and prediction of paleochannel deposits thickness. The authors recommend this approach for assessing the prospects of paleochannel deposits and further planning of geological exploration.