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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Monday was a mediocre 52-56-153. The TSX Venture Exchange gained one point to 998 while diamond prices were flat. Arnold Kondrat's Delrand Resources Ltd. (DRN) closed unchanged at 55 cents on 1.5 million shares. Delrand, which is exploring for diamonds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, recently raised $250,000 for exploration at 50 cents. Kirill Klip's International Lithium Corp. (ILC) gained one cent to five cents on 1.38 million shares. The company completed its acquisition of the Mariana lithium project in Argentina last week. Mariana is under option to Ganfeng International Lithium Co. Ltd., which currently holds an 80-per-cent interest. The co-venturers are getting set for pilot-scale testing.

Louis Doyle's Barker Minerals Ltd. (BML), unchanged at two cents on 63,000 shares, has dropped all mention of a Canadian government "research partnership" at its Tasse diamond project in British Columbia. Mr. Doyle previously said a "report on results" was expected to be published at a later date, but many dates have come and gone since the government awarded Ali Polat, a University of Windsor professor, a $25,000 grant to assess alkaline lamproite diatremes at Tasse for diamond potential. It is uncertain if Mr. Polat, a prolific geological author, has completed his assessment, or if he decided that given what he found at Tasse, "perish" was a preferable alternative to "publish." Mr. Doyle still spouts optimism for his gem hunt, saying the positive identification of important kimberlite indicator minerals is a very important step. He adds -- just in case one missed it the first time -- that the results to date are "very positive and important" but further exploration and analysis are needed to determine if Tasse has economic diamond potential. If there is, rejoice British Columbians: Mr. Doyle says Tasse could make a big contribution to the provincial economy for decades to come. (Perhaps, and decades could come and go before Barker proves or kills the play.)

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