In April 2008 it closed second tranche of a private placement that raised $100 million for the development of the Mengo potash project. These positive developments were reflected in its share price with the company becoming in 2008 the third largest mining company by capitalization on the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture Exchange. In June 2008, it received US$70 million from Ameropa Holding, the receiver of the potash and a major shareholder in the company. The project had large scale energy requirements and need a huge volume of natural gas. To that end the company signed a natural gas supply agreement with Eni to meet its requirements. Although it had a fair wind with high potash prices especially in 2008 and most of 2009 and pre-construction work and drilling had commenced, the company still had much difficulty in finding debt financing or the strategic partner necessary to raise the US$1.4 billion necessary to complete development of the Mengo potash project. It raised $26 million in June 2009 through issuance of new shares to tide over the continuation of Phase 1 development as finding debt financing became prolonged. Separate discussions were held with Chinese state owned enterprises in 2009-10; first with Sinohydro and then with Complant. The Chinese SOEs were attractive as strategic partners because of deep pockets through links to Chinese banks but the talks fell through in succession. Another reason for looking for a Chinese tie up according to a company executive was the lack of Western investor interest due to lack of familiarity with Republic of Congo and perception of heightened country risk. During this period, potash prices dropped precipitously starting in late 2009 with prices reaching around $500/tonne in January 2010. The company announced an investment in late 2010 with investment company TSC Capital but the proposed deal was terminated. In 2011, Evergreen Holding Group, a private Chinese shipbuilder, purchased 76% of the shares of the company for $115 million, and became the controlling shareholder. After the acquisition, the company was kept listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. There was cause again for optimism in 2013 when the company announced in November that China Development Bank had provided a 12-month commitment to act as lead arranger in financing of US$740 million for development of the Mengou potash project. There was still a shortfall in the total funding needed to develop the project and a proposed idea was to carve out the cost of development of the port facility into a separate build-own-transfer agreement. The stock doubled towards the end of 2013 compared with the beginning of the year. The company was investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for making corrupt payments to Congolese officials.