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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a positive 94-81-135 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose two points to 590. Not only were rough diamond prices down again this week, according to Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index, but late-to-arrive data wiped out any hint of a recent weekly increase going back to mid-April. And that mid-April moment was just a hint, as were a few weekly plateaus in March in which Mr. Zimnisky's chart drifted sideways. Indeed, the last for-sure increase was logged in February, when rough prices hit 186 -- a six-point increase from an early January low of 180.

Unfortunately, that modest and brief rally now stands as a mere hillock on the road downslope from the crag that was an all-time high of 207.2, logged by Mr. Zimnisky's index in mid-February of 2022. (The early-in-the-year rallies may not be a coincidence, as they occurred in a period after the main holiday seasons, a time when jewellery retailers and manufacturers are frantically restocking.) Mr. Zimnisky now has his index at 156.2 points, down by over 16 per cent from this year's February high and a full 24.6 per cent lower than at the 2022 record high.

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