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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a positive 100-75-135 as the TSX Venture Exchange jumped 10 points to 537. Well, it is not yet Easter, but it has risen! Ewan Mason's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM) got to 9.5 cents today -- its highest since last fall -- on word that its separation agreement with Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. (RTEC) has closed.

Star now owns a 100-per-cent interest in the Fort a la Corne diamond project (FalC JV) in central Saskatchewan. It also gets $4-million in cash while RTEC gets 108.2 million seven-cent shares of Star -- enough to give it a 19.9-per-cent interest in the company when added to the 11.1 million shares it already held. Star Diamond revealed the news without comment, but Mr. Mason, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said all that could be said during the many months of negotiating and finalizing the paperwork.

RTEC did have a wee bit to say when it revealed the news late yesterday -- and its words carried a hint of a sting to loyal shareholders of Star. "RTEC disposed of the FalC JV Interest as a result of investment considerations," it said -- a comment suggesting it did not think much of the project as an investment despite having sunk at least $200-million into the venture through exploration expenses. After all, RTEC transferred its 75-per-cent interest in the project to Star for just $7.5-million of stock, and along with the $4-million in cash, it is also supplying letters of credit of up to $9.9-million to "secure certain environmental remediation and reclamation obligations related to the project."

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