"...entered into a one year service agreement with a multimedia news organization and events management firm..."
Let me offer another possibility for what this means beyond spamming message boards. The money could be used in whole or in part to feature promotional coverage on faux news Websites and pushers of emails surrounding such articles.
That is not likely to help find a partner, though it may give a short-term boost to the share price. Note, however, that mining stocks are grossly out of favor at present.
In the meantime, I've not seen any increase in promotional postings on popular message boards, at least not yet.