RE: TBD and DON IMO, withholding the $7M balance is good news. TBD has had some tough luck, to be sure, but it appears management may not have been totally forthcoming about its problems and probably could have overcome them with better contingency planning and allocation of capital. In any case, Sandstorm needs to start taking a hard line with partners who can't meet milestones and hold up their part of the agreement they signed up to. If the economics are still good, they'll find the money elsewhere. If not, well, as I've said: Sandstorm should be the lender of first resort, never the lender of last resort.
BTW, its not all that surprising that the project hasn't met expectations, if you look at the economics of fracking. The EROI is very steep for most of these projects and IMO Americans & Canadians have been sold a bill of goods in thinking that fracking, shale gas, tar sands, etc. are going to restore the economy and put the Saudis out of business. (Remember ethanol?...) If TBD fails, look for its leases to picked up for a song by a major. The energy business is cutthroat and IMO the best thing SM&E could do is to drop the E and get on with what they do best. Not only are every one of its solo projects failures, but they are all energy deals. The successes to date are Donner (copper), Collosus (palladium), CNZ (zinc & lead) and - giving it the benefit of the doubt for now - Entree (copper). Nuff said.