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Gold/Mining/Energy : DIAMONDWORKS DMW.v -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wizzer who wrote (241)	1/31/1999 1:19:00 PM
From: VisionsOfSugarplums	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 413

Hi, Wizzer and all. FYI, here's another link reporting the halt: ottawacitizen.com P.S. - I don't follow this stock. Just checking it out. Regards, t. Trading halted in mining company Bertrand Marotte The Ottawa Citizen TORONTO -- The country's top securities regulator halted trading yesterday morning in troubled DiamondWorks Ltd. after the company filed confidential information about a recent transaction. The Vancouver-based junior mining company, whose diamond mine in Angola was closed late last year after armed rebels killed eight employees and kidnapped 10 others, requested the halt, a company spokesman said yesterday. Invoking confidentiality is used only in circumstances where it is believed disclosure would be "unduly detrimental to the interests of the company," said Toronto securities lawyer Philip Anisman. Publicly traded companies are supposed to disclose in a timely fashion all information of a material nature. Officials at the Ontario Securities Commission and TSE were tight-lipped yesterday. "I can't discuss it further. There are reasons at the present time why we cannot discuss it," said Neil Winchester, head of surveillance at the TSE. "It's very unusual." The OSC said it issued a temporary cease trade order on the stock "pending clarification of the affairs of the company." DiamondWorks' shares soared by 76 per cent yesterday, from 17 cents to 30 cents, in heavy trading on speculation the company would meet a self-imposed deadline to reopen its Yetwene diamond mine in northeastern Angola by the end of January. The company, which has links to controversial stock promoter Robert Friedland and has connections to mercenary groups that provide guns and muscle to corporations in trouble spots, had been seeking a fresh injection of working capital to reopen the mine. It operates a second diamond mine not far from Yetwene and has another one in strife-torn Sierra Leone. Bill Trenaman, vice-president for corporate development, said the confidentiality was requested "for humanitarian reasons." "We don't want to do anything to jeopardize the safety (of the 10 missing employees)," he said. "This is a unique situation." Mr. Trenaman and DiamondWorks' chief financial officer Peter Meredith later called back a reporter to backpedal on what had been said earlier. "We probably said things we shouldn't have said to you," said Meredith, adding that the company's lawyers advised them not to talk about it. In an earlier conversation, Trenaman would not say if there have been any talks with the UNITA rebel army, but added that it is not known where the 10 -- two British, one Portuguese and seven Angolan nationals -- are being held. DiamondWorks is seen as something of a buccaneer for its determination to exploit mines in some of the globe's hottest trouble spots. "The rewards are enormous if the equally high risks can be stomached," said Vahid Fathi, mining analyst with ABN Amro Inc. in Chicago.