The purpose of the digital dataset is to make publicly available two Alberta diamond datasets:

1. Confirmed and rumoured occurrences of diamond in alluvium

This dataset includes information on 22 occurrences of diamond in alluvium. In the infancy stages of Canada's ongoing diamond play, the current focus on alluvial diamonds is to treat them like indicator-minerals; that is, alluvial diamonds occur proximal to, or have been relocated down-ice from diamondiferous source rocks. If that is the case, then diamond explorers take note because in northern Alberta some alluvial diamond occurrences cannot be related to known clusters of diamondiferous kimberlite. These alluvial diamonds of uncertain origin include:

- the Caribou diamond, which is north (up-ice) of the Buffalo Head Hills kimberlite field;

- the Whitecourt diamonds, which are separated from the Buffalo Head Hills kimberlite field by a physical boundary of younger Swan Hills Tertiary gravels;

- the Calling lake diamond, which is in an area of known indicator-mineral anomalies with unique chemistries that favour the future discovery of a new diamondiferous kimberlite field in northeastern Alberta; and

- finally, 23 micro- (<0.5 mm) and macro- (>0.5 mm) diamonds, including a clear 0.4 mm octahedral-shaped diamond, which were recovered north of Hinton, remain unexplained and may be of local origin.

Knowledge about these alluvial diamond occurrences may, one day, help to locate a bedrock diamond deposit in Alberta, but their presence also poses an important question: Can Alberta alluvium contain economic concentrations of diamonds?

2. Occurrences of diamond in kimberlite/ultramafic rocks

This dataset includes information on diamond occurrences from 32 host rock sources. To the end of 2006, 48 ultrabasic to kimberlite pipes have been discovered in three separate areas of northern Alberta, with 2 closely spaced pipes at Mountain Lake, 38 pipes at Buffalo Head Hills and 8 pipes at Birch Mountains. The best diamond results to date are from the Buffalo Head Hills kimberlite field, where 26 of the 38 pipes contain diamond. Mini-bulk samples from 3 of the 38 Buffalo Head Hills kimberlite occurrences have estimated diamond grades that range from 12 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht) to 55 cpht in kimberlite K252, with a particular breccia from this occurrence having an estimated grade of 85 cpht.