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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a so-so 72-75-130. The TSX Venture Exchange lost two points to 713 while polished diamond prices jumped 0.8 per cent. Guy Bourassa's Nemaska Lithium Inc. (NMX), plodding relentlessly along toward becoming a lithium producer at its billion-dollar Whabouchi project, added three cents to 87 cents on 2.92 million shares.

Ken MacNeill and George Read's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM), up one-half cent to 19.5 cents on 535,000 shares, is promoting a significant change to its proposed mining plan for the Star-Orion South diamond project in central Saskatchewan. For two decades, the big Star pipe has been the flagship kimberlite in the company's plans, but the company's new preliminary economic assessment proposes mining the Orion South kimberlite first.

There had been rumblings that might be the case for over a year, as developing a big open-pit mine at Orion South could cost less than at Star. Still, with projected higher grades and diamond values, Star remains an enticing target. Moreover, the company's co-venturer, Rio Tinto Exploration Corp., may have other ideas. Rio Tinto can earn up to a 60-per-cent interest in the project by delivering a feasibility study within the next six years and if it does, it will call the shots.

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