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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Monday was a mediocre 50-58-153. The TSX Venture Exchange lost five points to 990 while diamond prices held steady. Randy Turner's Canterra Minerals Corp. (CTM) fell two cents to 10 cents on 304,000 shares. Canterra revived its diamond hunt this spring with several property acquisitions across the South Slave district in the Northwest Territories. It is now collecting surface till samples for indicator mineral work. Guy Bourassa's Nemaska Lithium Inc. (NMX) gained two cents to 24 cents on 3.14 million shares. The company has taken its Whabouchi lithium project in Quebec to feasibility but it needs financing.

The shares of Patrick Power's Arctic Star Exploration Corp. (ADD) fell today, dropping 3.5 cents to eight cents on 3.37 million shares after a summer drilling program at Redemption, west of Lac de Gras. The work, conducted by the company and its co-venturer, Grenville Thomas's North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR: $0.63), wrapped up the usual way -- with a disappointing thud. "None of the drill holes definitively encountered a bedrock kimberlite source" for the South Coppermine kimberlite indicator mineral train, Mr. Power fudged, acknowledging another of several drilling failures since Arctic Star began work in the area in 2004, but this time he dangled a faint hope before investors. He said one of the seven holes encountered a "dull green clay gouge" that has been sent for indicator mineral testing. (Gouge is fine material formed by rock slippage along a fault; it may also be the feeling experienced by some of Mr. Power's long-term backers upon hearing his latest news.) The drilling failure does not necessarily imply that all the company's targets are duds, as the ones tested this summer were land-based anomalies. Arctic Star and North Arrow have several more that require drilling from the lake ice next spring. Although a majority of the targets drilled in the area were land-based targets, nearly all the diamondiferous kimberlites discovered occur within lakes. All four Diavik pipes lie offshore within Lac de Gras. The three Gahcho Kue pipes are in shallow waters of Kennady Lake and the key Ekati pipes were found within several small lakes. Further, although a sliver of De Beers's Snap Lake dike outcropped on the northwestern shore of Snap Lake, the bulk of the body lies beneath the lake. As a result, Mr. Power is likely to keep the faith for at least another year.

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