"Another diamond promotion based on diamond colour and quality, Chuck Fipke's Metalex Ventures Ltd. (MTX), has had a tough spring, although the slump was driven by bureaucratic delays, not a new dose of bad results. (Metalex, 31 cents in January, closed unchanged at 10 cents on 188,000 shares today.) The company must wait another year at least to start its 10,000-tonne bulk sample of U2, a big, low-grade pipe 60 kilometres west of the Victor diamond mine in Northern Ontario. An environmental group has thrown up a roadblock of paperwork that will outlast this year's winter road. (Meanwhile, Metalex continues talking with the local Indians about an exploration agreement, in the hope of avoiding a more conventional roadblock next winter.) Mr. Fipke and his crews intend to keep busy by drilling a diamond play near Wemindji, on the east coast of James Bay. (That play has the support and participation of another group of Indians through their Wemindji Exploration Ltd.) Metalex recently wrapped up geophysics that showed several kimberlite targets directly up-ice from promising indicator minerals. Metalex is still waiting for drill permits but with the locals' support, Metalex may yet have some promotable news this year."