I've read people suggesting that a JV could be announced at any...

I've read people suggesting that a JV could be announced at any time only that it would be contingent on successful test production. I can't see how that would work though. Assuming the JV would involve issue of shares to the JV partner, I imagine they wouldn't issue the shares based on a contingent agreement so they would need to wait until successful testing before any shares were issued.

However, the announcement of the JV would presumably push the share price up which wouldn't be in the interest of the JV partner when it comes to the price of issuance.

I could be missing something but just struggling to see how that could work in practice.