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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Thursday was a weak 66-102-142 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell three points to 573. Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MPVD) set another new low this week, dipping to just 12 cents this morning before ending the day up one-half cent to 13 cents on 101,000 shares.

Terry Tucker's Southstone Minerals Ltd. (SML) has been halted since December at one sad cent, pending completion of its acquisition of Padstone Pte. Ltd and its Guinean diamond project. Nevertheless, the company has been generating good news -- and even some modest cash flow -- at its Oena alluvial operation in South Africa. Further, there are hopeful signs that the trend toward increasing production will continue.

Late last week, Southstone cheered that it had generated nearly $800,000 in revenue during its third quarter, which ended May 31. That cash, from the sales of diamonds recovered by its contractors at the various Oena deposits, was offset by expenses of barely $400,000, leaving Southstone with $390,000 in gross profit for the quarter. Yes, there were other administrative expenses, but the company nevertheless managed to record $312,000 in net income.

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