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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Friday was a rosy 49-36-166. The TSX Venture Exchange gained 10 points to 555 while polished diamond prices were flat. Robert Gannicott and Brendan Bell's Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC) had another solid day, gaining 32 cents to $15.65 on 340,000 shares. The stock is now $1.31 above Wednesday's 52-week low of $14.34 but far off its June high of $24.60. Today's buyers undoubtedly hope the recent low is indeed the bottom, and not yet another aching shoulder shielding another, still lower head, as has been the case recently. Guy Bourassa's Nemaska Lithium Inc. (NMX) closed unchanged at 24 cents on 524,000 shares. The company is in the unpromotable permitting and financing stage with its Whabouchi lithium project in Quebec. A feasibility study last year projected a mine would cost $500-million to build.

Nicholas Houghton's True North Gems Inc. (TGX), unchanged at 14 cents on 85,000 shares, is raising $4-million (U.S.) by selling a 7-per-cent interest in a subsidiary that owns the Aappaluttoq project to Greenland Venture. Mr. Houghton, CEO, says the cash will "provide True North the resources for transition into the production phase" at Aappaluttoq. In other words, the company needs a significant amount of cash before the seasonal ruby and sapphire mine on the western coast of Greenland achieves production next spring. (Construction is expected to be complete in October, just in time for a winter shutdown.) Mr. Houghton adds that the cash will allow the company to restructure its share of operating expenses, reducing True North's immediate cash requirements and therefore minimizing dilution to its current shareholders.

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