Hi Sum4all,
It depends on the potential buyer and their motivation/relationships. Industrial materials is a querky market with strategic alliances and partners. For example (totally made up example) if we do an offtake with Panasonic we may find that Teck is out of the picture as a potential buyer because its chinese partner could be in a network with Foxconn and their plan to build their own gigafactory. The flip side is that an offtake may derisk the deal for a miner without the baggage mentioned above or that has a relationship with offtake partner and in turn stimulate them to bid. So I expect that AE is getting lots of advice on the ins and outs of the players and strategic choices from ZEN's investment bankers.
... Been There
This is where Mr Stowe's experince with DFR kicks in, IMO