This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.

Here is a sample of this item:

by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Thursday was an acceptable 78-83-149 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell 19 points to 994. Jean-Raymond Boulle and Ewan Mason's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM) closed unchanged at four cents on 98,000 shares. In other words, there is nothing new with diamond explorers listed in Canada. Down under, there is news about a Canadian mine. Burgundy Diamond Mines Ltd., which now owns Ekati in the Northwest Territories, has a tentative plan for its Point Lake open-pit mine, which it put on care and maintenance in July, citing weak rough diamond prices that rendered it "sub-economic."

Burgundy says that a May bulk sample of the pipe saw 67,757 carats recovered from 122,291 tonnes of kimberlite, a grade of 55 carats per hundred tonnes. The gems were subsequently valued at just 52 (U.S.) per carat, a result that the company grumbled was 27 per cent lower than the expected result based on historical sampling and the current price book. (In other words, not only are rough prices weak globally, the latest sample is weaker than previous ones because of a finer size frequency distribution than expected.) And so, Burgundy says, open-pit mining at Point Lake "will be deferred to mid-2026," and that resumption is "subject to diamond prices."

The remainder is available to Stockwatch subscribers.
Sign-up for a FREE 30-day Stockwatch subscription and SEE NO ADS