The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a so-so 83-79-148 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell three points to 537. Ewan Mason's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM) continues to tread water with its Fort a la Corne diamond project in central Saskatchewan. A resource update, expected by the end of June, is the next news that might break the company out of its multiyear funk. Star lost one-half cent to 7.5 cents on 99,000 shares today.
Despite what Howe Street promoters might hope, not all Quebec pegmatites are stock-propelling sources of economic grades of lithium. Jonathan Buick's Champion Electric Metals Inc. (LTHM) lost one of its precious few cents Tuesday, closing at five cents on 3.18 million shares on word of assays from its maiden drill program at the Western prospect on its Lithium project -- yes, that is its name as well as the target mineral -- in the James Bay region of Quebec.
When the company wrapped up its 10-hole, 2,263-metre maiden drill program in mid-April, it was already focused on just two of the holes. The seventh hole, the company cheered, had hit an 18.8-metre near-surface zone with spodumene-rich pegmatite. The eighth hole also hit spodumene -- a 5.9-metre pegmatite intercept that also began near surface.
Today, Champion Electric got its assays. A 10-metre zone within that 18-metre intercept in the No. 7 hole graded 0.42 per cent lithium oxide, with modest amounts of tantalum, cesium, niobium and rubidium. The No. 8 hole did a bit better, but over just 1.85 metres, as it graded 0.56 per cent lithium oxide and similarly modest amounts of the other rare metals.
Mr. Buick, president and chief executive officer, nevertheless beamed brightly, cheering that "discovering a lithium-bearing pegmatite in our maiden drill program is a fantastic achievement." About the grades, worry not, as he and his crew believe that they intersected the edge of a mineralized system -- one they think may extend to the northeast for some distance. And so, look for a new field program to "pick up immediately to the northeast of the mineralized pegmatite."
One might ask why the area was not targeted earlier, but Mr. Buick offers an explanation: The area now to be the focus was not tested earlier because of soggy ground resulting from the spring thaw, which prevented drill access. Mr. Buick then belted out the usual promotional refrain: "We are still in the early stages of exploration on our vast property," he cheered, "but we have now established a successful exploration workflow that we intend to apply over the whole property." Champion Electric held its own today, closing unchanged at five cents on 535,000 shares today.
Speaking of promotional refrains, Marcy Kiesman's Durango Resources Inc. (DGO) is warbling enthusiastically about the Lion copper discovery by Terry Lynch's Power Nickel Inc. (PNPN: $0.60) on its Nisk nickel property in the James Bay region of Quebec. In mid-April, Power revealed that it had drilled a 6.55-metre interval grading 5.33 per cent copper and 0.43 per cent nickel, along with healthy amounts of precious metals, a hit that prompted Mr. Lynch, Power's CEO, to name the zone Lion, noting that "this will be the King of the Beasts."
