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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Thursday was a bleak 47-82-134. The TSX Venture Exchange fell two points to 770 while polished diamond prices inched upward. Patrick Evans's Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MPV) gained 13 cents to $6.68 on 193,000 shares. The company continues to ramp up its 49-per-cent-owned, $1.08-billion Gahcho Kue diamond mine toward commercial production, which it expects to reach early next year.

Richard Atkinson's Fjordland Exploration Inc. (FEX), unchanged at six cents on 2,000 shares, is inching ahead with the $1-million placement it proposed a month ago. The company has sold 2.52 million shares at 10 cents, barely one-quarter of the number it wants to sell. Mr. Atkinson, president and chief executive officer, calls the closing a first tranche, but he makes no mention of any plans for a second. The cash is needed for exploration at the company's new diamond project in the Athabasca district of northwestern Saskatchewan, as well as for working capital. (The latter appears to be the more pressing need, promotion aside, as Fjordland's current accounts were about $240,000 in the red at the end of June.)

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