There was also the currency swap that that went against the company... I see that Dollar against Canadian Dollar went from .94 May 2011 to 1.46 by Dec 2015.
How else would they be able to finance the start up other than capital from the public?
What would be the point in funding the project privately and staying private? At some point the hedge funds need to monetize their investments.
Go public issue some positive press releases to convince the market this is a derivative play on previous metals and enjoy the ride. Why not stick this sucker in the gdxj and let the public finance the expansion. It offloads some risk in case the new technology doesn't pan out and makes the hedge funds investment liquid.