Star Diamond Charts New Course with Fresh Leadership and a De-Risked Asset

SASKATOON, SK – March 30, 2026 – Star Diamond Corporation (TSX: DIAM) has signaled a pivotal turn in its long journey, reporting improved financial health and a strategic leadership overhaul as it advances its flagship diamond project in Saskatchewan. While the company's 2025 year-end results show a narrowed net loss and a positive shift in working capital, the real story lies in the confluence of a new management team, a significantly upgraded mineral resource, and the persistent challenge of securing capital to unlock one of Canada's most promising diamond deposits.

In its latest financial disclosure, Star Diamond announced a net loss of $3.8 million for 2025, a marked improvement from the $6.0 million loss recorded in 2024. More significantly, the company has reversed a working capital deficit of over $1 million into a surplus of $458,000. This financial stabilization, largely fueled by a $4 million private placement, provides a crucial, if temporary, runway for a new executive team tasked with navigating the project toward a development decision.

A New Team at the Helm

The most visible change at Star Diamond occurred in November 2025 with a comprehensive restructuring of its leadership. Ewan Mason retired as Chair, President, and CEO, making way for a new guard. Wayne Malouf was appointed Chairman, and Mark Shimell, a long-serving exploration veteran with the company, was promoted to Chief Operating Officer.

The appointment of Lester Kemp as interim CEO is particularly noteworthy. A graduate of London's prestigious Royal School of Mines, Kemp brings extensive, hands-on experience in diamond mining operations. His career includes co-founding Mantle Diamonds, which operated mines in Lesotho and Botswana, and roles with junior resource companies across Africa and Europe. This background in bringing diamond projects to fruition contrasts with a history focused primarily on exploration and could signal a more aggressive push towards production.

Shimell's promotion to COO also provides critical continuity. As the company's long-time Vice President of Exploration and a Professional Geoscientist with over two decades of experience in Canadian diamond exploration—much of it on this very project—his deep technical knowledge of the Fort à la Corne geology is invaluable. This new leadership blend of external operational expertise and internal project knowledge appears designed to tackle the next, most critical phase of the company's evolution.

Unlocking the Fort à la Corne Project

At the heart of Star Diamond's future is the Star – Orion South Diamond Project, located in the Fort à la Corne kimberlite field in central Saskatchewan. While the project is currently in a state of 'care and maintenance' to conserve cash, technical work is quietly progressing on a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) that could make or break the project's future.

A cornerstone of this study is a revised mineral resource estimate from July 2024, which significantly bolstered the project's potential. The report increased the Indicated Mineral Resources by 22% to 34.8 million carats for the Star kimberlite and by a substantial 37% to 36.9 million carats for the Orion South kimberlite. Crucially, the technical team determined that the data was robust enough to proceed without further expensive and time-consuming bulk sampling at Orion South, a move that de-risks the project timeline and saves millions in potential expenditures.

The ongoing PFS, for which a budget of $3 million has been prepared, aims to integrate this larger resource into a re-optimized open-pit mine plan and a new economic assessment. This study is the essential step required before a full feasibility study can be undertaken, on which a final production decision would be based.

The Financial Tightrope

Despite the positive technical developments, the path forward is constrained by capital. The improved working capital was a direct result of recent financings, including an $800,000 loan and a $4 million private placement from Spirit Resources s.a.r.l. in 2025. However, with just $724,000 in cash and cash equivalents at year-end, the company's financial footing remains delicate.

In its own press release, Star Diamond explicitly states that the timing of the PFS is "dependent, among other things, on the Company completing one or more financings." This underscores the central challenge for the new management team: convincing the market to fund the next stage of development. Investor sentiment has been tepid, with the company's stock (DIAM) declining approximately 60% over the past year, reflecting broader market skepticism towards junior mining ventures that are not yet generating revenue.

A Resilient Asset in a Shifting Market

Star Diamond's quest for funding is unfolding against the backdrop of a global diamond market in flux. The rise of lower-priced lab-grown diamonds has put significant pressure on the market for smaller, more common natural stones. However, the market for rare, large, and high-value natural diamonds has remained more resilient, increasingly viewed as a separate luxury or investment asset class.

This is where the unique geology of the Fort à la Corne project becomes Star Diamond's potential trump card. The kimberlites host an unusually high proportion of Type IIa diamonds—the rarest and often most valuable classification, which includes many of the world's most famous large, high-color gems. According to company data, Type IIa diamonds account for 26.5% of the stones in the Star kimberlite and 12.5% in Orion South, compared to less than 2% of all natural diamonds globally.

This high concentration of premium-quality stones could insulate the project from the worst of the market's volatility and command higher prices, fundamentally altering its economic viability. The new leadership's challenge will be to effectively communicate this unique value proposition to a market that has grown cautious. The success of Star Diamond now hinges not just on the riches buried in the Saskatchewan soil, but on its ability to secure the investment needed to finally bring them to the surface.