There's several strategies and a lot depends on whether equity...

There's several strategies and a lot depends on whether equity is being provided by off-take partners to secure part of the financing needed.

The early stage strategy was implemented by Core and is being implemented by GL1. Under this strategy a cornerstone off-take agreement is agreed for a modest proportion of anticipated production. The off-take partner becomes one of the major shareholders and a key supplier of capital towards getting the project into production. A long gap may exist between the first off-take and FID under this strategy. For example Core had an off-take with Yahua on 1 Dec 2017 but it was not until Sep 2021 that the FID decision was made.

The second lithium strategy is viewing off-takes as primarily a confirmed sale delivery channel. The project is well advanced when off-takes are agreed, for example all of Liontown's three off-takes were confirmed in 2022 while a $450m capital raise occurred in late 2021. Under this strategy a reasonably accurate timeline exists around when delivery under the offtake is likely to be possible.

A third permutation is discounting from market prices in return for a capital commitment. There's elements of this in Core's deals. The hints given so far by ESS indicate they may be looking at discounted fixed/floor/ceiling prices in return for upfront capital and therefore less shareholder dilution.