They were NOT given the shares , they did $240K worth of work, cosultancy and other work, Now that has since gone down to a value of some $100k, but the work they did is still of value hence they were not given anything, and they have lost on that work,otherwise they would have been paid cold hard cash.
Working for shares in the mining industry is quite normal, drilling, consultancy, conveyency, mapping exploratory work, heaps of etc etc and of course they have to quote the disclaimer, That it is obvious.
If someone comes on to your property and does work, you can pay them in cash or in whatever you agree too, that is not "given" as you state.
Next Investor are loosing on their investment and will want a return obviously
