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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a mediocre 44-61-157. The TSX Venture Exchange fell 13 points to 1,010 while diamond prices were flat. Robert Gannicott's Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC) dropped 20 cents to $14.53 on 99,000 shares. Dominion is doing better than forecast at both Ekati and Diavik but its stock, $15.77 barely a month ago, has been sinking slowly. Paul Gill's Lomiko Metals Inc. (LMR) gained one-half cent to 10.5 cents on 5.11 million shares. Lomiko hopes to mine graphite at Quatre Milles in Quebec. It also wants to develop and sell graphene products from the material.

Eric Friedland's Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. (PGD), up one-half cent to 28 cents on 389,000 shares, is back on track, helped by a lengthy summary of its work at Chidliak, on Baffin Island. The stock spent the summer near 40 cents but lost nearly half its value when Peregrine priced its $15.1-million rights offering at just 21 cents. (Shareholders can buy one unit for each two shares they own; each unit contains one share and one warrant, exercisable at 21 cents for one year. As a result the share count will probably double.) Mr. Friedland needs the cash for a big bulk sampling program at Chidliak, on southeastern Baffin Island, which is set to start next spring, with results likely in early 2016. The price of the offering was unexpectedly low, but stock guru John Kaiser, a long-time Peregrine booster, holds the view that "insiders are simply going by the book to boost their stake as cheaply as possible." Those insiders include Mr. Friedland, who currently owns nearly 20 million shares, his older brother, Robert Friedland, who controls 27 million and Ned Goodman, who owns nearly four million. The three have agreed to exercise all their rights and any left unexercised by Peregrine's lesser shareholders.

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