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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Thursday was a mediocre 70-98-142 as the TSX Venture Exchange lost two points to 551. Hugues Jacquemin's Northern Graphite Corp. (NGC) rose one-half cent to 21 cents on 154,000 shares. The company has updated its resource estimate for the Lac-des-Iles mine in Quebec. The company now lists 3.29 million tonnes grading 6.4 per cent graphite and 1.43 million tonnes inferred at 7.4 per cent, a total of 318,000 tonnes of graphite.

"We are very excited to announce a material increase in our resource base," glowed Mr. Jacquemin, chief executive officer, noting that the revised estimate comes just as graphite demand gains momentum from industrial users and battery makers. Mr. Jacquemin says that Northern Graphite acquired the mine a few years back with a vision of extending the mine life, increasing production and developing it into a cornerstone asset.

This is a significant increase in the available resource, the company says -- yes, again -- adding that it will come in handy as Northern Graphite intends to meet rising demand for graphite by boosting production to 25,000 tonnes per year through a seven-day-per-week operation. (Lac-des-Iles currently runs at an annual rate of about 10,000 tonnes per year, based on a four-day-a-week schedule.)

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