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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a disappointing 32-43-160. The TSX Venture Exchange fell fractionally to 505 while polished diamond prices edged higher. Robert Gannicott and Brendan Bell's Dominion Diamond Corp. (DDC) gained one cent to $15.01 on 340,000 shares. The company's Ekati mine continues its transformation from mining the dregs of old kimberlites to opening operations at some new, or at least reconditioned pipes. The mine should now have enough kimberlite to tide it over until Jay is ready to come on stream in the early 2020s.

Grenville Thomas and Ken Armstrong's North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR), unchanged at 26 cents on 24,000 shares, has begun a winter drilling program at its Pikoo diamond play in Northern Saskatchewan. The company plans 2,500 metres of drilling, its biggest program yet on the project, to "fully delineate" three diamondiferous pipes and to test new targets. Pikoo seemed a throw-in project when North Arrow acquired options on three properties held by Stornoway Diamond Corp. (SWY: $0.77) three years ago. One of them, Timiskaming, has seen no work since then. Another, Qilalugaq, was a promotional bust last year when North Arrow collected a bulk sample for valuation purposes.

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