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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Monday was a mediocre 71-88-151 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell seven points to 626. Ewan Mason and George Read's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM) closed unchanged at 3.5 cents on 653,000 shares as the wait goes on for progress at its behemoth diamond project in central Saskatchewan.

Star Diamond has been spinning its market treadmill in an endless loop, jogging in place near the four-cent mark since the triple horrors of a working capital shortage, a stock-drawer purge by former shareholder and tax-loss selling abated in mid-January. The company should now have enough cash to keep its lights on for several more months, and better yet, it is optimistic that its crew can soon get back to work on a prefeasibility study of the two key pipes at its Fort a la Corne project.

Mr. Mason, Star's chairman and chief executive officer, says that the second tranche of the company's "non-dilutive financing" should close at the end of the week. The company has been offering convertible debentures seeking $500,000 in new cash, and last week it cheered word that $335,000 of the debentures had been placed. In today's world of junior diamond explorers, "second tranche" translates to "we are struggling to find backers" and the company's pitch to current shareholders with $10,000 burning a hole in their wallet to "contact Star Diamond by e-mail" did nothing to assuage that concern.

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