IMO, the only thing holding back a potential partnership was the pending financing. That's because no one would want to enter a partnership with LBSR if they could not be firstly assured the company had the means to pay it's on-going operating expenses.

Now that that issue is out of the way, the company may proceed with finalizing a deal, something they could not have been working on during the "quite period." Why? Because even a rumor of such could have effected the stock price, and gotten both parties in trouble for violating conditions attached to the "quite period." In other words, working on a deal inside of a quite period would not be "normal course of business", so is not permitted.

This does not mean we are at "square one" with an intrested party (assuming there is one), but tems have to be hashed out, and run through legal reviews. "Drill ready" helps but it's not the main thing at this point, and I don't think it was ever in question anyway.

So, we are back to waiting. With luck, we could have news on a deal "in principle" ahead of a formal signing. Days? Weeks? Dunno.

By the way, I hear a lot of people came away from Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference last week very encouraged about the market. Lots of deals were done, money is filtering back into the industry. One US-based miner is calling back several hundred layed off workers. Things are looking up for producers and explorers.

Hope this helps.