"Let us not forget that some of us (like yours truly) participated in a privae placement that was meant to fund some initial drilling (goal, I believe, was to raise $250K) by JB and nothing came of it. It was later said that such a small campaign would be dangerous to pursue because if we missed the target, we were toast."

I seem to recall that the minimal amount was based on what would be needed to start drilling as long as further commitments were in the pipeline sufficient to meet the needs of an on-going program.  That may not have been well explained, but it is my recollection.