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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a promising 83-56-171 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose seven points to 638. The latest grumbling from the auctions of rough diamonds held by De Beers -- the company calls them sights -- was arguably good news for shareholders of Ewan Mason's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM). The company's stock has finally been able to fog a mirror lately in what might be a sign of new life: Today it was unchanged at five cents on 212,000 shares.

Rough diamonds larger than five carats were in short supply at De Beer's February sight, although the reason why was not clear. Diamond buyers suspect that De Beers intentionally withheld larger gems from its auction, although another theory had production cuts at the company's mines having contributed to the shortage. At last report, De Beers was sitting on about $2-billion (U.S.) of rough -- the most since the Great Recession of 2008 -- as it attempted to flatten the curve of a three-year decline in prices.

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