Are there that many warrants outstanding to pay for anything significant?

The only warrants left are the 9 cent ones. Ernesto alone has about 25 million 9 cent warrants so probably over $2 million dollars would come to company's coffers once those warrants are exercised. Not enough to do everything at VD, but good enough for a solid start.

How would they  get warrants exercised except by having the share price increase?

Copper fox can bring in those warrants at any time, by giving a 30 day notice to warrant holders, as per an older news release. The warrants are already in the money so no need for additional SP increase to exercise them, even though further SP increase would be appreciated :)