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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Thursday was a weak 39-54-143. The TSX Venture Exchange gained one point to 525 while polished diamond prices were flat. Patrick Evans's Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MPV), normally a thin trader, gained 26 cents to $3.70 on 430,000 shares. There was no news to account for the move -- Mr. Evans has had nothing to say since July -- but at last report construction of the company's Gahcho Kue mine in the Northwest Territories was going well. Meanwhile, Mark Smith's Largo Resources Ltd. (LGO) was headed the other way, losing 7.5 cents to 32 cents on 299,000 shares, also without any material news to drive the stock.

Chuck Fipke and Chad Ulansky's Metalex Ventures Ltd. (MTX) closed unchanged at six cents on 56,000 shares. The company's big plan for a 10,000-tonne bulk sample of the U2 kimberlite near Kyle Lake is on hold while Mr. Ulansky seeks about $20-million to complete the test. That leaves Metalex trying to keep its sputtering promotion alive through other projects. Mr. Fipke, chairman, and Mr. Ulansky, chief executive officer, have apparently settled on a Moroccan diamond project for now at least. The company spent $255,000 on exploration in Morocco during its latest quarter, nearly 80 per cent of its total exploration budget.

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