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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was a so-so 75-95-140 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell three points to 597. Ewan Mason and George Read's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM) closed unchanged at four cents on 1.4 million shares as the wait goes on for the company to raise enough cash to move ahead with a prefeasibility study of its Fort a la Corne diamond project in central Saskatchewan.

Star's situation is now acute: Its treasury crossed over to a working capital deficiency during the summer, leaving Star's current accounts about $122,000 in the red. Ignoring everything but cash on hand -- $746,000 -- and the bills stamped due -- $809,000 -- still leaves the company with a pressing need for an influx of working capital. And then there is the corporate burn rate. Star's expenses this year have been running just shy of $600,000 per quarter, so the working capital deficiency is presumably approaching $450,000 on that basis. Further, Star has been spending nearly $500,000 per quarter on exploration and evaluation, which, if continued into the current quarter, would bring the deficiency to roughly $700,000 today.

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