It is also my understanding that the entity(s) that dumped shares in the open market ignored the fact that when there is a large number of shares to be sold, the company and its advisors will do their best to find strong-handed block buyers for those shares.

So this says to me that this was a deliberate takedown (for whatever reason). The seller(s) could have got a much better price for their shares behind the scenes and refused to do so. Is this actionable? Hard to say. Is this legal? Unfortunately, this kind of manipulation is common place and the regulators look the other way. Is it moral and/or ethical? Absolutely not, but sadly this is the current mentality of many players in the financial industry. I guess they look up to their "squid" role-models, firms like Goldman Sachs.

The junior miners as an industry have to start isolating these repeat offenders from participating in financings, especially using flow-thru shares, or this will continue. Its time that the industry, the "moral" financiers (and there are some), and retail investors organized and took a stand against these financial squid and pariahs - a proactive strategy as opposed to the constant reactive aftershock "deer-in -the headlight" reactions. Otherwise all we will get is a continued "rinse and repeat" cycle of immorality.