To: Letmebe Frank who wrote (1729 ) 1/17/2004 12:30:28 PM From: WillP Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 16204 Hello Will, nice to hear from you. You too, as always.I hope you aren't getting the idea I am being manipulative here; no tricks, no calls, just a logical point in time to pin the SP of the more prominent canadian diamond plays, that I know of. Sigh. Of course not. I rewrote that post a few times, trying to avoid that perception. I should have left the initial one, eh? [grin] Analysis and "calls" are never manipulative in my opinion. Ranking by market caps is a good way of looking for long and short opportunities, isn't it?You would likely have a more comprehensive list of the Can dia players. Well, it's long -- very long -- but the serious contenders are few and far between. I would love to see it. So would I. It's actually largely in memory, although I'm trying to stay ahead of Alzheimers by committing some things to paper.But if you look at the Kaiser site there are a lot of area plays; I don't hear much of them. Plays come and go, ebb and flow. Some are just promotional vehicles.Regarding the idea that news and media attention likely will move the SP up is often the case. Similar to a few years back when ACA was the flavour, along with MAJ, and a few others. Thats why I'm keeping my eye on market cap. Makes sense to me.So which companies do you think will get the most attention this year? Or perhaps I could ask you which have the largest 2004 diamond exploration budgets? I was surprised to learn SUF is the (I think) 5 largest in the world looking for diamonds. I would like to know who the top 4 are! Then the top 10. From what I remember, SRM, SWY have big budgets, but I should look all this up. Exactly. The most powerful correlation is with money spent. Diamondex, Stornoway, Shear, Ashton are the ones likely to spend the most this year, although I've probably missed a few. I've intentionally left off De Beers, BHP, and RT's Diavik and Kennecott. That also intentionally exclues those projects that are "carried" (Gahcho Kue, Knife, Inulik). SouthernEra's Canadian budget has been tapering off over the years -- likely to continue unless there's some good news? There are also a few "surprise" juniors that will spend over $1-million this year. See, I just remembered a big spender for this year that I forgot above -- Shore Gold. That big bulk could be an all-or-nothing result, like Tli Kwi Cho looked to be on a January day in 1994. I'm sure there are more. Regards, WillP