They didn't buy those shares in the open market to cover, they delivered free trading stock from the shares issued in the financing just completed. It's a standard Baystreet hedge fund game and it seems one of the prices that has to be paid to get money. The good thing is the company is taking steps to avoid this in the future with mill production investment in a financial environment that demanded a change in strategy with increased production. Thankfully ECU was in a position of having lots of available feed that was quickly accessible and the ability to finally reacquire this mill due to Hecla's poor financial position.

The buying has been mostly from new large buyers taking cheap positions in ECU or existing shareholders averaging down or existing shareholders buying because it's cheap and averaging up due to the bargain price and all as a result of the short selling which drove down the price to ridiculous levels and probably chased out some retail investors. Also in the mix has been TD and Blackmont cleaning up any shares not yet sold from the financing and repositioning clients. Let's all keep in mind that Blackmont and TD will have now positioned some of their clients in ECU and those clients will pressure them to make money.