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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a weak 70-97-143 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell five points to 600. Adam Lundin and Dr. William Lamb's Lucara Diamond Corp. (LUC) nevertheless added 1.5 cents to 51 cents on 250,000 shares.

If there was any surprise in news from Lucara late last week, it was not that the company had sold its 100-per-cent interest in the Clara rough diamond sales platform -- it was that it took so long for it to do so. Lucara said it had received an "indicative non-binding offer" for Clara earlier this year, although it did not identify the potential buyer. Now it has, and no surprise, Lucara is returning Clara Diamond Solutions GP Inc. and its associated entities to the group that had originally founded Clara and sold it to Lucara six years ago.

Lucara will be getting $3-million (U.S.) in cash and the return of 10 million Lucara shares. The stock is currently worth about $4.5-million, which brings the total return to about $8.6-million. (Lucara is also released from any obligation to issue shares under the original sales deal.) Lucara will also retain a 3-per-cent net profit interest on Clara's net earnings -- if there are any -- and it also agrees to supply Clara with rough diamonds meeting the size and quality specifications of the gems Lucara previously had been selling through the Clara on-line platform. That deal will run for at least two years of the five-year term.

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