This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.

Here is a sample of this item:

by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a ho-hum 45-57-151 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell four points to 929. Polished diamond prices held steady. Dr. Leon Daniels's Pangolin Diamonds Corp. (PAN) traded actively, gaining two cents to 22 cents on 810,000 shares after hitting a second kimberlite in Botswana. Aubrey Eveleigh's graphite explorer, Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. (ZEN), one of the busiest promotions among specialty minerals juniors this year, rose two cents to $2.39 on 224,000 shares on word it will calculate a resource for its Albany project in Northern Ontario. Retail shareholders are way ahead of their company: they are already preparing their own dream sheets.

Grenville Thomas's North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR) edged up four more cents to 70 cents on 1,000 shares as its joint venturer, Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC: $15.03) drills their big property south of Lac de Gras. Dominion CEO, Robert Gannicott, says the first phase, which involved drilling 520 holes to collect basal till samples and assess the bedrock, is nearly complete. He says initial results confirm the presence of indicator minerals in areas not associated with previously discovered kimberlites. Dominion will complete its processing by the end of July and will resume work in early August. That could include core drilling, should the new indicator trains lead to source areas. The Lac de Gras property, which is along strike of the main Ekati and Diavik kimberlites, was prime ground in the 1990s. Unfortunately, the area is an enigma for both geophysicists and geochemists. Many millions of dollars were spent fruitlessly as geologists tried to select a worthwhile target from hundreds of anomalies that could have been kimberlites, but were usually just noise. Worse, thanks to the thick and shifting overburden, surface sampling was usually misleading. Nevertheless, Mr. Gannicott thinks Dominion's $2-million spring program can solve the riddles. If he is right, Mr. Thomas's North Arrow will hold a 45-per-cent interest in a promotable new diamond project.

The remainder is available to Stockwatch subscribers.
Sign-up for a FREE 30-day Stockwatch subscription and SEE NO ADS