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It's a question of which of Perth's Poli brothers will bed down a Chinese financing deal first: Aquila Resources chief executive Tony or Matsa Resources chairman Paul.

The difference in scale between what Aquila and Matsa are chasing is extreme.

Aquila has a memorandum of understanding with China Development Bank to fund its share of the $6 billion West Pilbara iron ore project - it just needs to convert that into a binding deal.

Matsa, meanwhile, has signed a non-binding term sheet with Shandong Gold for a joint venture over its $103 million Norseman gold-magnetite project. It has left the door open to other possibilities, including an outright sale, and has also held talks with China Nerin, Shanghai Zendal and Rock Resources.

At the same time, Matsa revealed in its quarterly last week that it may be edging towards a separate Chinese deal over its Dundas magnetite project, about 190km north of Esperance port.

Matsa has been quiet on Dundas, where it has an exploration target of up to 750mt magnetite, but that seems likely to change.

It is understood that Matsa has held talks with at least one Chinese party over a deal that could see the group take both a slice of Dundas and a toehold in Matsa itself, although the latter is likely to be a small stake.

Back to Aquila, which wants to secure about $2 billion in debt from CDB before the State Government make a decision on the development of Anketell Point in the West Pilbara.

Aquila hopes to be tapped as lead proponent for the port so that it can be built to the group's timetable. Fortescue Metals Group is also jostling for the same position.

The stakes are high. So high that the president of Baosteel, He Wenbo, is understood to have been in Perth to meet the Government and reiterate the Chinese heavyweight's support for Anketell and Aquila's vision for the new port.

Baosteel owns 15 per cent of Aquila and helped orchestrate the CDB agreement.

Shareholders should know by the end of the year if they have succeeded.

?Diamonds were making news last week for a few reasons.

Firstly, there was the World Diamond Council's decision to lift the ban on Zimbabwe's diamond exports, international sales having been banned since 2009 because of concerns about the so-called "blood diamond" trade.

Then there was Anglo American's $US5.1 billion deal to pick up the Oppenheimer family stake in De Beers.

Finally, on a much smaller scale, there was confirmation that London-listed Gem Diamonds is struggling operationally at WA's Ellendale mine.

Gem has had to cut its production forecasts for Ellendale because of ore processing problems, which it blamed partly on bad weather. In addition to major front-end modifications already under way at Ellendale, the miner is now planning extra work on its plant to address the problem.

Still, despite recent weakness in the prices for some diamonds, prices for Ellendale's fancy yellow diamonds are still strong: $US5153 a carat in the September quarter, compared with $US2791/c for the same quarter in 2010.

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