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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a 90-90-130 draw as the TSX Venture Exchange rose four points to 611. Ewan Mason's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM) closed unchanged at eight cents on 345,000 shares. The wait for word of a negotiated departure by Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. (RTEC) from the FalCon diamond project in central Saskatchewan continues, and until it ends one way or another Star Diamond's stock looks to stay stuck like glue near the nine-cent mark. Indeed, Star Diamond acknowledges that "the negotiated return of the project on reasonable terms is critical to its long-term success."

The key phrase is "on reasonable terms," as RTEC would likely let go its 75-per-cent interest in the project on modest terms -- terms that its minority co-venturer would likely deem unfavourable. The problem is that for FalCon to advance, Star Diamond will have to get the project back to the feasibility stage -- and with a study that potential backers will trust with their investment cash. To do so, RTEC had expected to pay well over $100-million on further exploration, and perhaps that much again on the detailed work needed to complete the study.

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