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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Monday was a horrid 38-81-146. The TSX Venture Exchange slumped 26 points to 928 while polished diamond prices inched upward. Chuck Fipke's Metalex Ventures Ltd. (MTX) lost one cent to five cents on 529,000 shares. Metalex still hopes to complete a 10,000 tonne test of its U2 pipe at Kyle Lake in Northern Ontario, but thanks to an interminable delay in getting permissions, it has lost its backer, Dundee Corp. (DC.A: $17.69), which had agreed to put up $51-million for a 51-per-cent interest. Richard Clark's RB Energy Inc. (RBI) slumped another 3.5 cents to 17 cents on 10.99 million shares. The company needs more cash, apparently a lot of it, to tide it over while it fixes the (hopefully) "non-fatal flaws" at its lithium mine near Val d'Or.

Ellen Clements's New Nadina Explorations Ltd. (NNA: $0.015) has squandered the second consecutive year of its five-year land use permit for Monument, a diamond play on the south shore of Lac de Gras. In July, Ms. Clements said "it is hoped that further drill testing of potential kimberlite targets will occur in 2014," but her passive yearning has been the extent of her effort this year -- the direct result of her inability to raise cash. With little chance of raising her own cash, Ms. Clements said recently that "a joint venture partner is being sought" for Monument. Unfortunately, New Nadina already has two partners who have tired of New Nadina's inaction. Dr. Stewart Blusson's Archon Minerals Ltd. (ACS: $1.40) earned a 20-per-cent interest years ago and is apparently still willing to participate should Ms. Clements find the means to carry on. Dr. Christopher Jennings owns a 22-per-cent interest privately, which he bought from SouthernEra Diamonds Inc. in the mid-2000s for $1-million. Dr. Jennings invested a significant chunk of his net worth because he believed there were plenty of new targets to test and further, the kimberlites already found might grade as high as one carat per tonne. New Nadina's modest testing before the 2008 market meltdown did not prove him right, but the diamond counts from several tonnes of rock did kill his theory. The diamonds revealed a diamond content of over 0.25 carat per tonne on average, and approaching 0.5 carat per tonne in the best pipes, suggesting a larger mini-bulk test might bear out Dr. Jennings's enthusiasm. Unfortunately he may never know, unless Ms. Clements discovers a few million dollars for drilling.

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