"To give a comparison on a PP in the market versus with a major, look at what cypress did last summer.  They had been doing PP's in the  market for pennies, but when they began talking to goldcorp they ran the sp up to .70 on the rumor, did the PP with goldcorp for .65 and then the sp fell back to the .30's. If they had done this in the market the dilution would have driven the SP in the other direction"

If I'm understanding you correctly, I don't agree with your observation.  You don't state any legitimate reasoning for why the SP came down as a result of doing a PP with Goldcorp.  The SP coming down had more to do with the issues that affected everyone in the summer.  It's continued difficulty has more to do with manipulation after the fact and other factors than a PP with a major.  The fact is that the PP with Goldcorp was a reasonable  price, not for pennies, with implications of substantial value, and in addition, the SP is still higher than the pennies it started at in May.  If anything the increase in price should have inspired investors to buy in when a major took interest but such was not market sentiment at that time and has not been to date.  The markets have in no way provided any consistancy on which to make your original generalized assumption on PP market vs PP major.  The considered market wisdom would indicate that a PP with a major is a strong indicator or successes to come.