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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a mediocre 78-86-146 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose three points to 806. Terry Tucker's plucky Southstone Minerals Ltd. (SML), last at one cent when it was halted late in 2023 pending an acquisition, is doggedly plodding along with another proposed transaction after the original deal collapsed.

Southstone intended to acquire Padstone Pte. Ltd., but the deal to acquire that Guinean diamond miner fell through last September. In February, Southstone said it would acquire Afrium Energy Pte. Ltd. -- a uranium explorer in Botswana. This week, Mr. Tucker, Southstone's executive chairman, said that the parties had added an addendum -- what else would one do with addendums -- to their binding term sheet, extending the deadline to mid-September. All other terms remain unchanged, he added.

Those original terms called for Southstone to acquire Afrium by issuing 20 million shares and granting a 2.5-per-cent royalty. They also called for Southstone to complete a private placement concurrent with the acquisition, raising between $1.5-million and $2.25-million. And therein lies the Catch-22 of the deal: The concurrent placement requires investors to shell out cash at some arranged price, but the terms of the concurrent equity financing cannot be set until the company's shares have been reinstated for trading -- shares that might not be reinstated for trading until the acquisition is complete -- and certainly not until the exchange approves the transaction.

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