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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Thursday was a 69-69-127 draw. The TSX Venture Exchange rose fractionally to 802 while polished diamond prices edged lower. Nicholas Houghton's True North Gems Inc. (TGX) gained one-half cent to one cent on 2.07 million shares. The company is deeply in debt and cannot complete its ruby and sapphire mine at Aappaluttoq, in western Greenland.

Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC) lost two cents to $10.64 on 647,000 shares. Many years have passed since Dominion wowed the market with exploration news, but the company continues to have one of the largest exploration budgets among Canadian diamond hunters. Investors largely ignore the company's efforts since they mainly involve new looks at old pipes, but nevertheless, Dominion has a good success rate with its efforts to mine every last diamond in its pipes.

The company's current exploration focus is Fox Deep, the remnant resource in one of the largest of the Ekati kimberlites. Although open-pit mining at Fox wound up last year, Fox still has an indicated resource of 35.0 million tonnes at an average of 0.28 carat per tonne and another 2.0 million tonnes inferred at 0.35 carat per tonne, or about 10.5 million carats that were worth roughly $300 (U.S.) per carat or $84 (U.S.) per tonne at last report. The company puts its conceptual underground mining costs for Fox at between $50 and $84 (Canadian) per tonne -- they increase with depth -- suggesting an underground mine could be profitable.

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