Larry, 

The short position never expires.  The shorts can hypothetically stay short until eternity, but as the stock keeps rising it will cost them greater and greater amounts to buy back the shares they have borrowed.  Remember the venerable words of the late Commodore Vanderbilt, "He who sells what isn't hisn must buy it back or go to prison."  These shorts know that, but also, like you or I, they are also human, and consequently, it is hard for them to admit to themselves or to their friends that they have goofed.  So right now, they are like the man who is waiting for the ideal time to tell his wife that he had an affair.  For most people, it is very easy to procrastinate involving such a situation.  And, meanwhile, the stock is slowly easing its way up, killing them softly.  One of these days we'll have a good jump up and then all heck will break loose, so to speak.  Just be patient.  In the words of Eric King, "DON'T PANIC!!!!" Stay the course.  Why would anybody sell a junior gold miner in a very stable part of the world with 2 million gold equivalent ounces in the ground surrounded by known producers and other miners getting ready to soon go into production with gold closing in on $1000 an ounce?  Answer me that one?  SB