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Gold has held up well, touching $312 an oz, which is feeding hopes that a sustained rise is taking shape. Shares continue to be mixed, although good news still adds value to the likes of Aquarius Platinum, whose South African rationalisation programme has received regulatory approval.

Conroy's conundrum

Richard Conroy, physiology professor, former Irish senator and chairman of Aim-listed Conroy Diamonds & Gold, is champing at the bit. After companies he previously headed found Ireland's 10 million-tonne Galmoy zinc deposit and the 5.6 million-oz Pogo gold field in Alaska but did not keep control of either, he is determined this should not happen again with the array of prospects he argues Conroy now has in hand.

Conroy says it could be close to a potentially world-class gold discovery in what is called the Longford Down Massif, which straddles the Irish border. Drilling has uncovered grades ranging from 1.88g of gold per tonne of ore to 22g a tonne at specific prospects in this zone – at Tullybluck/Lisglassan and Cargalisgorran in the 'Monaghan-Armagh gold belt' and at Slieve Glah, nearer the southern end of Conroy's licence area of 400 sq m.

Company geologists say there is a chance that some of these prospects are on the same geological fault which has yielded commercial gold deposits from Newfoundland to Scotland, adding that Slieve Glah could have worthwhile copper deposits, too. Conroy consultants suggest potential annual production of 10,000 oz at Tulklybluck/Lisglassan, at a cost of around $180 an oz.

Meanwhile, up in Finland, Conroy has recovered diamond indicator minerals and 'bulls eye' aeromagnetic anomalies at its licence area in the east. This is near the Russian border and, argues Richard Conroy, is on the same structure as Russia's massive Lomonosova diamond deposit, now valued at $3.7 billion (£2.65 billion).

Conroy's Finnish area is also next door to one being developed by European Diamonds – another Aim-listed group. However, thanks to the international reputation of Roy Spencer, the acclaimed Australian prospector running European, it enjoys a stock market price tag of more than £30 million, at 206p a share. Meanwhile, Conroy is valued at only £2.6 million, at 12.5p – down from more than 30p last year.

If Finland bears out its promise, Conroy might float it off as a separate company. Meanwhile, it concedes it will have to come to the market sooner or later to fund further development of these prospects.

To move to a new stage, with full feasibility studies, it would need the money and, or credibility which only a major joint venture partner could supply. With the share price so low, that would involve a very heavy dilution of Conroy's interests.

Richard Conroy says he is not willing to accept this – hence the company's chicken-and-egg dilemma.

A succession of convincing further drilling results and other reports could resolve the problem. Until then, the shares are likely to remain a speculation, although one which could one day pay off handsomely.

European has itself reported encouraging indications. It remains a flutter for the bold.

'New beginning' at OreVest

Ofex-traded mining investment minnow OreVest is joining Canada's Ontario diamond rush with a deal to earn 70 per cent of Canadian prospector MIT Ventures' exploration programme in that province. OreVest, headed by the entrepreneurial Jo Malins, is paying £50,000 down – part of a £300,000 commitment over three years – and issuing 10 million shares to MIT, which is itself listed on the Canadian Ventures Exchange.

OreVest, heavily backed by Australian investor Bruce Rowan, is also about to raise £180,000 in a placing, supported by Resources Investment Trust – the Aim-listed backer devised by financier Willie West.

At the same time, Malins says Mazal, a South African concern with which OreVest's previous management concluded an abortive deal, is now expected to return £170,000 to OreVest.

Malins suggests these movers are the first in a series that will set up the company's stall as a diamond exploration backer. At 1p, the shares have doubled from last year's low, but remain a third of their high and offer essentially speculative potential.

Tiger prowls

Rowan has also been busying himself at another venture: Aim-listed Tiger Resource Finance. With 15 per cent recently acquired, he has replaced vendor Minmet's boss Jeremy Metcalfe as chairman and welcomed Lion Capital's Colin Bird as a new board colleague.

Tiger holds stakes in nine companies, including Brancote, Cluff Mining and Gold Fields (whose shares have trebled). At a depressed 1.25p, its shares could thrive in a mining boom.