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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a pleasant 62-46-141. The TSX Venture Exchange gained four points to 939 while polished diamond prices jumped 1 per cent. Rio Tinto PLC is offering three reds at its annual auction of fancy diamonds from its Argyle mine in Australia. The company will also sell three blues and 58 pinks at the annual sale, which brings in enough revenue to make Argyle profitable. Most of Argyle's diamonds are industrial-grade stones that sell for under $20 per carat. This sale should do well. Rio Tinto will sell a three-carat pink named the Argyle Imperial, its largest pink in eight years. A 1.56-carat red diamond dubbed the Argyle Phoenix and a 0.7-carat blue named the Argyle Celestial are also gaining attention. The company will show off its diamonds on a global tour before the sale, set for early fall.

Grenville Thomas and Dr. Christopher Jennings's North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR: $0.42) touts a 26-million-carat resource at its Q1-4 pipe at Qilalugaq, just northwest of Repulse Bay in Central Nunavut. The big kimberlite hosts 48.8 million tonnes inferred at an average of 0.54 carat per tonne, exactly what Stornoway Diamond Corp. (SWY: $0.61) calculated last year. (That is no surprise since North Arrow has yet to do any work.) To earn an 80-per-cent interest in Qilalugaq from Stornoway, North Arrow must complete a 1,000-tonne bulk test to assess the diamond value and determine if "coloured diamonds persist into the larger diamond sizes." For decades promoters have touted -- once with great effect -- the presence of tiny coloured stones. Unfortunately, all those projects failed to yield many (or any) coloured commercial-sized diamonds in larger tests, which is why Argyle's fancies fetch enormous prices. A bulk test of Q1-4 will cost several million dollars, currently beyond the capability of North Arrow. Fortunately, the company has five years to complete the test. Good news from its other diamond plays could assist North Arrow's search for cash. The company does have a capable crew of promoters: Mr. Thomas and his daughter Eira Thomas successfully promoted Diavik in the 1990s. Later, Ms. Thomas always got fawning attention from brokers, investors and the press when she was CEO of Stornoway in the mid-2000s. Dr. Jennings also had success promoting SouthernEra Resources Ltd.

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