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by Will Purcell

The diamond stocks box score for Thursday was a lethargic 26-33-19-54 (A-D-U-N). The TSX Venture Exchange lost 18 points to 1,481 while polished diamond prices edged upward. The case of an Israeli pilot charged with attempting to smuggle $2.4-million worth of rough diamonds out of Zimbabwe took a new twist this week, when Shmuel Klein entered a not guilty plea in a Harare court. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Klein said the diamonds were not his. He claimed he was being framed by someone he knew, although he declined to say by whom. (Reportedly, Mr. Klein initially told the investigators who discovered the diamonds that they were objects used in an airplane.) In entering his plea, Mr. Klein's position is significantly different. He says he was in legal possession of the diamonds on behalf of an Israeli diamond trader associated with Masri Diamonds. Further, he now claims police stole some of the diamonds in their custody.

Robert Gannicott's Harry Winston Diamond Corp. (HW) fell 77 cents to $13.74 on 525,000 shares following news the company had another profitable year. Mr. Gannicott says that because Rio Tinto PLC may sell its 60-per-cent interest in Diavik, he will not release the updated Diavik mine plan. In his next breath he delved right into a key component of the apparently not-so-secret document: open-pit mining at A-21. Mr. Gannicott says the capital cost will be higher than thought but he expects the new mine will go ahead, with work starting late this year.

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