I have a fairly decent sized holding and so do a couple of mates...

I have a fairly decent sized holding and so do a couple of mates of mine. We were not going to participate in this rights issue. Perhaps they realised there were others like us and that it may have fallen way short. Perhaps it was easier to go to one big investor.
IMO they have all the equipment in there to ramp up production (tested and proven). It's time to mine the good stuff and use those funds to further expand production and purchase new equipment if necessary. Once we do that, a bank line of credit may be secured if required (possibly) then no other capital raisings would be need.
They have had long enough to sort this out and it's  time to stop playing silly buggers!