Pinetree can be very aggressive. They will purchase in the open market if they can't do a bought deal direct with the company. This is what they did to accumulate a large position in Noront.
Not sure how they would manipulate share price to keep it down when they want to accumulate BUT it's funny how much Noront went up AFTER they finished their accumulation.
Having Pinetree holding a lot of shares isn't a terrible thing since they do tend to hold on fairly long term instead of dumping on the market at the first chance for making a buck. They want 1000 percent profit on at least some of their holdings.