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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a mediocre 72-67-116. The TSX Venture Exchange gained 14 points to 807 while polished diamond prices fell 0.2 per cent. Ken MacNeill and George Read's Shore Gold Inc. (SGF) lost one cents to 18 cents on 1.48 million shares. Shore is busy with a feasibility update at Star-Orion South in Saskatchewan that could cut its projected capital costs significantly.

Simon Tam and Denis Hayes's Gem International Resources Inc. (GI: $0.08) has sold 18 million shares at five cents, raising $900,000 that Mr. Hayes, chief executive officer, and Mr. Tam, president, say "will in part be used toward advancing its Dala diamond project in Angola." They presumably mean there are other corporate needs requiring cash, but Dala alone needs a lot more cash than Gem International has raised so far. (To earn an 88-per-cent interest in Global Gems International Ltd. and its 45-per-cent interest in Dala, the company is required to pay $1-million in cash and spend $13-million on exploration over five years. The cash payments do not kick in for three years, but the exploration hurdles come early: Gem International must spend $3-million (U.S.) in each of the first two years and must have this year's spending requirement in the bank by the end of May.)

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