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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Wednesday was an upbeat 99-66-135 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell one point to 693 and polished diamond prices inched lower. Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc. (CCW) was a busy trader today, dropping three cents to 61 cents on 2.13 million shares. The company touts its Castle project in Ontario for its "exploration upside" from cobalt, nickel and precious metals.

Patrick Power's Arctic Star Exploration Corp. (ADD), unchanged at 2.5 cents on 180,000 shares, is struggling to raise cash, even at the lowly price of 2.5 cents. The company has received a 30-day extension for the placement, which it launched in early June with the intention of selling up to 26 million shares. The $650,000 to be raised is to be used for work at the company's diamond project in Finland, and for working capital.

There is a need for both, and in significant quantities: Arctic Star's current accounts were nearly $300,000 in the red at the end of March. That, and the $400,000 quarterly cash burn rate, would consume the full placement on their own. Meanwhile, the Timantti project in east-central Finland has been all but dormant this year -- discouraging, since it is a low-cost project given its logistics and the thin overburden covering the kimberlite field.

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