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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a moribund 33-59-175. The TSX Venture Exchange fell 10 points to 659 while polished diamond prices fell 0.2 per cent. Robert Gannicott's Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC), the biggest gainer over the past several months, was the biggest loser today, slumping $1.15 to $19.52 on 798,000 shares. The company has had no bad news to feed the general market malaise -- nor has there been any good news to allay the slump -- but Dominion's fourth quarter production report is expected shortly. Daniel Spine and Ron Roda's Alabama Graphite Corp. (ALP) closed unchanged at 15.5 cents on 355,000 shares. The company has been trenching at its Bama graphite project in central Alabama. Drilling is expected shortly.

Ken MacNeill and George Read's stalled Saskatchewan diamond promotion, Shore Gold Inc. (SGF) fell one-half cent to 23 cents on 81,000 shares. Shore needs $2-billion for a Star-Orion South diamond mine but it has been unable to find bankers and possible co-venturers willing to assume the risk. That has Mr. Read, Shore's tireless vice-president, looking to begin mining at Orion South, not Star. That should peel a few hundred million dollars off the capital cost but that may matter little to the company's potential backers unless Mr. Read can convince them that the rock values at Orion South are a safe bet.

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