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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a weak 64-115-131 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell nine points to 534. Ewan Mason's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM) rose one cent to nine cents on 573,000 shares.

Last week, when Star Diamond revealed some details of its separation agreement with Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. (RTEC), some information desired by investors was omitted. This week, the company provided some clarity to two of their questions -- how much the return of the Fort a la Corne diamond project to full feasibility will cost -- a return repeatedly promised within two years -- and where that cash will be coming from.

During the company's conference call with investors last week, Mr. Mason, Star's chairman and interim chief executive officer, pegged the cost of a feasibility study at "several orders of magnitude less" than what RTEC had projected. That appears to be a case of promoters' -- indeed poetic -- licence, as even if RTEC had budgeted $200-million for a study, several -- say four -- orders of magnitude would come in at a minuscule $20,000.

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