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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a bleak 38-56-178. The TSX Venture Exchange fell 14 points to 808 while polished diamond prices held steady. Dr. Stewart Blusson's Archon Minerals Ltd. (ACS) slumped 15 cents to $1 on 12,000 shares. Archon now owes Dr. Blusson, its founder and majority shareholder, over $25-million. He has been bankrolling the company's exploration programs in Canada's North for many years, and earlier this fall he agreed to cover a $7.6-million payment to Chuck Fipke for a 3.47-per-cent interest in the Buffer claims at Ekati. So far the eccentric (and philanthropic) Dr. Blusson has been a patient creditor. Cristiano Melcher's MBAC Fertilizer Corp. (MBC) jumped 7.5 cents to 14 cents on 16.90 million shares. MBAC has received an extension to the maturity dates on loans of $183-million (U.S.). The company ran up the debt during construction of its Itafos phosphate mine in Brazil. About $22-million (U.S.) of the total was coming due shortly; nearly all the loans will now mature between 2018 and 2020.

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