UPDATE:Battle brewing between Big Red Diamond and Kel-Ex

Big Red Diamond (DIA-V) blames its partners in a joint venture for the hold-up in its financial filings.

Montreal-based Big Red has requested an additional 30-days from the Autorite des marche financiers to file its annual financial statements ended Oct. 31, 2005. Approval of the request is said to be a formality.

In a press release issued on Feb. 28, Big Red says the extra time is needed because joint venture partners Kel-Ex Development and Metalex Ventures‘s (MTX-V) financial reporting has “been inconsistent and difficult to reconcile.”

Kel-Ex and Metalex are the operators and managers of the Attawapiskate and Dumont Joint Ventures, in which Big Red is a minority partner. Renowned geologist Charles Fipke runs Kel-Ex and acts as chairman of Metalex.

Desrosiers says Big Red has been left in the dark by Kel-Ex with regards to operations.

“For the last year we’ve been demanding access to data and details of accounting of the joint venture and our requests have been met with silence or incomplete answers,” Desrosiers says.

According to Desrosiers, Tel-Ex says the release of such information would give Big Red an unfair competitive advantage.

“That’s an intellectual statement that is a bit lopsided,” he says, “for the simple reason that we are partners and as such we should be on the same side.”

Big Red has been allowed to view data, but not take it away from site.

Reached in Australia, Metalex’s president Peter Gregory said Metalex refutes the claims in Big Red’s press release and is considering its legal options.

According to Derosiers another bone of contention between the companies is the roughly $500,000 Big Red is in arrears for.

The money is in connection with prior exploration work done at the project. Desrosiers says he doesn’t know how the money was spent, and consequently can’t say if the monetary demand is legitimate.

While Desrosiers says he’d still like to see the dispute settled in a friendly manner, he wouldn’t rule out legal action.

In the meantime he hopes the delay request to the Autorite des marches finaciers, will both put regulatory pressure on Kel-Ex and give it the time it may need to prepare its financial disclosures in a more “consistent” manner.

As for the status of joint venture project, work has been halted since January of 2005.

“We’re trying to determine if we should go ahead with the project,” Desrosiers says, “but without the data we can’t make an educated decision because we don’t know where we are at.”

The Attawapiskate properties are located in the Porcupine district in northeastern Ontario. To date more than 200 samples have been collected and sent for analysis. Study of the abundant Kimberlite indicator minerals found in the samples has lead to the identification of numerous mineral fans that were the focus of sampling efforts.