"It seems no one wants to take a punt on MNB the share price...

"It seems no one wants to take a punt on MNB the share price still languishes around 5 cents"

If no one wanted to buy, you wouldn't have any volume. As always, just as many shares are being bought as are sold. There is always someone on the other side of every trade. You might not want to take a punt but that doesn't mean others are not buying.
Over 4 million options were bought a few days ago at a premium of at least 3.5c. Those options are nearly 2c out of the money.
No one has told me that the offtake is signed but I agree with Timdonny that that news could drop at any time now. When it does, the term loan could follow in the following week or two if due diligence is near completion and it's mainly waiting on the offtake.
Some of us don't see this as a punt. I see it as a higher risk investment. Most investments in stocks are higher risk but on average, returns over the longer term make up for the volatility. Even with smaller stocks like MNB, when buying stocks with a higher chance of progressing projects and buying low rather than chasing the price by following the crowd, rewards can be very high over time.