In Jack's defense - and in keeping with your suggestion - shorts cover in this environment, and we have seen the evidence as the short positionis in decline - I will be surprised if it went up materially in the last 2 weeks, but we will know soon. Indeed you are correct that more shares "offered for sale" and this is what shorts do: Put big blocks on the offer side that appear to overhang the market and then they use the smokescreen to cover. A particularly useful tactic when there is a natural seller as well: Enter Pinetree into the equation.
BTW I would not suggest that PNP is finished selling yet - I am sure they would like to clear more of that debt so that they are very comfortable with their leverage in a bad market for junior resource companies......
I use the weakness to add bits and pieces. We just have to wait it out.