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by Will Purcell

The critical and specialty minerals stocks box score on Monday was a workable 90-94-126 as the TSX Venture Exchange slid 12 points to 984. Jagdip Bal's Lexston Mining Corp. (LEXT) lost one-half cent to nine cents on 180,000 shares.

Might Lexston be looking at becoming a diamond explorer? As improbable as that might seem given the gloom and doom permeating the sector for the past -- well, a long, long time -- the company has appointed one of Canada's few remaining diamond geologists to its board of advisers. Buddy Doyle, who becomes Lexston's first adviser, spent 23 years with Rio Tinto PLC, much of that time involved with the company's diamond hunt in Canada's North. In 2004, he left to become vice-president of exploration at Arctic Star Exploration Corp. (ADD) and he is still there, now as its executive chairman.

Despite spending 35 years pursuing diamonds, musty records show that Mr. Doyle got his start at Rio Tinto in the late 1980s, chasing gold at Lihir in Australia. He may have dusted off his old gold notes, as he recently has been popping up in senior positions with other juniors -- most recently this summer when he became president of Peter Miles's Gold Strike Resources Corp. (GSR: $0.54). Indeed, Mr. Doyle has popped up in roles with plenty of precious and base metals explorers over the years.

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