No explanation for market surge, Tahera Diamond says

Shares of Tahera Diamond Corp. took a big jump Friday in extremely heavy trading on the TSX.

But the company said it had no explanation for the sudden market interest in its stock.

Tahera shares were up four cents to close at 17 cents in heavy trading of almost 18 million shares — 16 times their normal trading volume.

A sudden jump in a stock's price and trading volume is often due to speculation about a possible takeover. But Tahera moved to downplay that possibility.

"In light of today's trading activity and at the request of Regulation Services Inc., on behalf of the Toronto Stock Exchange, [Tahera Diamond Corp.] is not aware of any corporate developments that would impact the trading of the stock," it said in a brief release Friday.

Tahera's main asset is its troubled Jericho diamond mine in Nunavut. The company warned in December it might have to shut down the mine if it couldn't arrange $30 million in a new equity rights offering.

Tahera lost $143 million over the first nine months of 2007, and has also written off $73 million it had spent on the Jericho mine that it now does not expect to recover. It blamed the high Canadian dollar, high oil prices, and other operational and production issues. 

One mining analyst told CBC News in November that the Jericho mine should never have been put into production.