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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Friday was an upbeat 51-42-152. The TSX Venture Exchange gained three points to 538 while polished diamond prices edged upward. Patrick Power's Arctic Star Exploration Corp. (ADD) closed unchanged at two cents on 691,000 shares. The company will watch this spring as its Redemption co-venturer, North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR: $0.23) drills more targets on the intriguing but so far disappointing diamond prospect west of Lac de Gras. This could be North Arrow's last kick at the can, but Mr. Power has another potential partner in Dr. Christopher Jennings who would be willing to step in.

Robert Gannicott and Brendan Bell's Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC) lost 16 cents to $13.72 on 356,000 shares. The company and Dr. Stewart Blusson's Archon Minerals Ltd. (ACS: $2), its minority co-venturer on the Buffer claims, expect a feasibility study of the big Jay project during May. A recent mini-bulk sample of the pipe excavated 1,028 tonnes of kimberlite and the 1,904 carats of diamonds recovered represent a grade of 1.85 carats per tonne. This is slightly less than the grades from earlier tests, but Dominion has now discovered to its consternation that those tests used smaller cut-offs. As a result, the Jay partners are revising Jay's modelled grade lower, perhaps by more than 10 per cent, although the decrease is partially offset by an increase in the diamond value. Nevertheless, Dominion now says, all things being equal -- which they rarely are -- that Jay's value per tonne is likely about 7 per cent lower than previously thought.

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