RE:How much cash do we need to begin?They did not announce $10MM of funding on Feb 23rd On Feb 22nd, they announced that they established an "ATM" program which means "at the market" - and means just that - They have authorization to sell 10 million dollars of equity directly to the market, at their discretion. Whether they will sell any or all of that equity remains to be seen. They may not sell any of it, but it is a further safety net for them to raise cash should the need arise.
Currently, the company has completed their equity financing and are finalizing terms with an unnamed lender (quite possibly one of the "Big 5") to secure a $45 million USD loan to finance the rest of the refinery project. I speculated before that the ATM program you speak of was put in place because the lender wanted more security from the company before extending them a loan.
We should be expecting to hear the company announce that the loan has been finalized sometime soon. Initially they were aiming for the end of March, but I believe they have since revised this to be before the end of April.
Aside from this, the wheels are already in motion and things are moving in the background. If you watch any of the recent interviews with Trent, he speaks about what the company is working on and rough timelines for the next milestones.