It's really no different to Mining Company A, owned 40% by...

It's really no different to Mining Company A, owned 40% by Institution Z, 40% by Institution Y and 20% by private investors.

Mining Company A owe AUD$16M and they need approx $2M a month for the next year. They're sitting on at least two sites that have verified gold deposits, in an area where that is not uncommon. So very decent prospect of future profits but need to fund the day to day business and to get the gold out of the ground and processed, somewhere in the region of AUD$40M + AUD$150M.

Mining company A could try and borrow the money they need (USD$100M from Sprott for example) - or they could go to the majors shareholders and sound out whether they would fund the development by providing cash via issue of additional shares. The plus side of that is no punitive interest rate from a loaner, nor an insistence on a % of gold mined.

If the story is compelling, the big shareholders would likely support the issuance of additional shares. If private investors were unable to take up their 20% - that doesn't mean it's the wrong route for Mining Company A to proceed down. That's just the way business works.