That is just the way Bob works the system. His nominees wash a few shares generating volume that simulates interest in the stock. Many times you'll also see premarket trades that are designed to signal buying interest that are generally called a gap up. Sometimes he catches a few people unaware that way. Then Bob puts out a vacuous PR much like yesterday's. His PR's range from the "We've found iron" that starts an operation through variations that are supposed to illuminate the premining phase and continue to the "We have a mysterious investor who will solve our problems" and the deal making PR's that name companies that are either too big for an individual investor to validate any speicific information about any possible claimed deal or that simply exist only on paper or in Bob's mind.
You're probably right that one of the next PR's will be about the exploitation permitting. Any information given, though, will not be verifiable through any legitimate source. In the alternative Bob could PR that the permitting process has failed because of corrupt Mexican government officials or some other nefarious person or persons. Regardless it won't be Bob's fault. The result?? Project failure and on to the next big find . . . . and the next group of gullible "investors".
As to your second question, I think you are misinterpreting the SHO report. The shares reported "short" are those that haven't been delivered as of the time of any such report. The rules allow for (I believe) 3 days before a transaction settles. Those shares that are showing as "short" are usually simply in transit in some form or another. The most believable explanation for those numbers in the last few days in my opinion is the one I alluded to yesterday. That Bob's deal with Fremery Mining gives them a large number of free trading shares which they don't already have access to but which they are selling anyway. When Bob issues the shares (which he would be obliged to do by virtue of his agreement) the transactions will settle and there will be another new batch of stuckholders here.
This can be a fairly profitable trading stock. The only true longs here are those that cannot get out without an almost total loss.
GLTA.