Many like myself have bought options wanting to later sell half...

Many like myself have bought options wanting to later sell half (or so) in order to exercise the rest and effectively be free carried for the heads. You can't do this if the oppies are not in the money (or in my case way, way ahead of being in the money!).

You also can't do this if trading in the options has stopped - hence getting assay results immediately (and certainly this week) is central to the exercise (exercision!) of the options.

At this point, even if the options are just in the money on say, COB on the 22nd, I will not be able to exercise them all - and my guess is there are many others in my situation.