STAMICO has said that Buckreef is a $280MM project. TNX has less than $30MM. The drill results are ancient news. No other bidder was willing to pay more the $3MM for the project. Since TNX hasn't issued any new drill results the value hasn't changed since the time of purchase. Still worth $3MM. Since you like simple math... $280MM - $30MM = $250MM...$250MM/$2.50 per share = 100MM new shares. It gets more complex but close enough.
Nobody bought 17MM shares. That is trading volume. Back out all the day trades. Then subtract double what Geier had for the intra day flip on the low ball purchase. Only one person at the company believes.