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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Monday was a mediocre 84-99-127 as the TSX Venture Exchange lost two points to 544. Dr. William Lamb's Lucara Diamond Corp. lost one-half cent to 35 cents on 141,000 shares. Lucara rolled out its 2024 production and cost guidance for its Karowe mine in Botswana last week.

The new numbers were met with a shrug if not disdain, as the company's stock continued to trade listlessly near the 35-cent mark -- losing one of its precious remaining pennies on the heels of the news. And no, the news was not bad. Indeed, there were some eyebrow-cocking pleasant predictions in the projections. While some of those might appear overexuberant on the part of Dr. Lamb and his crew, there is a method to their proverbial promotional madness.

The main eyebrow raiser was the projected revenue, which Lucara predicts will fall between $220-million (U.S.) to $250-million next year -- this despite predicted diamond sales dropping to 345,000 to 375,000 carats. A year ago, Lucara had predicted it would sell between 385,000 and 415,000 carats for $200-million (U.S.) to $230-million (U.S.). And so, the company now expects to receive about $20-million (U.S.) more from selling 40,000 fewer carats despite a weaker diamond market.

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