Certain minerals are present in the rocks from the upper mantle that occur with diamonds in kimberlite and lamproite pipes, as seen in nearby cases of xenoliths and diamond inclusions. Some of these minerals, being resistant to weathering and denser than quartz sand, concentrate in channel bottoms. Because they occur in far greater abundance than diamond, exploration geologists look for these "indicators" among the gravel of regions they suspect may host diamond-bearing pipes.

Indicator minerals for diamond include, in order of decreasing significance: garnet, chromite, ilmenite, clinopyroxene, olivine, and zircon. But the order of persistence in streams is zircon, ilmenite, chromite, garnet, chromian diopside, and olivine. Diamond itself is obviously a most important indicator.