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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Friday was 45-53-143. The TSX Venture Exchange gained two points to 703 while polished diamond prices inched upward. Ken MacNeill and George Read's Shore Gold Inc. (SGF), closed unchanged at 20 cents on 1.20 million shares. Investors who bought 11,000 shares at 19.5 cents today got a better deal than those lining up to buy 10 million shares at 20 cents in the company's current private placement, which seemed priced to sell just a few days ago. Aubrey Eveleigh's Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. (ZEN), down to $2 at one point today, closed down 15 cents to $2.28 on 424,000 shares. Some retail shareholders suggested the big players were "shaking the tree" today, but others appeared to be shaking in their boots: The fate of the company's Albany graphite play in Northern Ontario may rest on a dream sheet that is expected imminently.

Robert Gannicott's Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC), down 16 cents to $22.83 on 245,000 shares, sold $188-million (U.S.) of diamonds from its Ekati and Diavik mines in its first quarter, which ended April 30. The Lac de Gras area experienced an unusually severe winter and Dominion had more than its usual problems. As a result, kimberlite mining and processing tonnages were down significantly, resulting in lower diamond production at Diavik. Worse still, rough diamond prices were either flat or slightly lower, depending on the kimberlite pipe being mined. Further, Dominion had just two sales in the quarter -- it will hold three in its current quarter -- and its inventory of rough diamonds is significantly higher now than it was a year ago. Nevertheless, thanks to the mathematical intricacies of diamond mining, the company's accountants say that first quarter revenues were higher this year than a year ago.

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