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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a weak 75-88-147 despite the TSX Venture Exchange leaping 10 points to 540. Surge Battery Metals Inc. (NILI) fell 2.5 cents to 49.5 cents on 1.23 million shares. The company is beavering away with its Nevada North lithium clay project in Nevada.

Thar she blows! Ewan Mason's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM) finally has its separation agreement with Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. (RTEC). Star, which ended the day unchanged at 7.5 cents on 190,000 shares, rolled out the long-awaited news an hour after the market close today. There were few surprises in the agreement, which returns a 100-per-cent interest in the FalCon -- now Kiwetin -- project in central Saskatchewan to Star, and much of the deal was almost boilerplate wording in the industry.

Still, there was one eye-popper in the details. "RTEC will transfer to Star Diamond ownership of the trench cutter drill rig used by RTEC to complete its prior bulk sampling program at the project," says Star Diamond, referring to the Bauer trench cutter that Mr. Mason describes as a $100-million piece of equipment. (For those wondering why the mammoth rig sat idle for nearly three years without being lugged back home to Germany, it appears that RTEC purchased it outright at some point.)

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