Australian explorer Resolution Minerals has entered a short-term exclusivity agreement with Nasdaq-listed Snow Lake Resources for its recently acquired Horse Heaven antimony/tungsten/gold/silver project in Idaho, US.

The exclusivity arrangement comes after Resolution received an unsolicited indicative and non-binding offer from Snow Lake early this month. That offer valued the project at A$225-million, proposing a combination of cash and Snow Lake shares, with the precise ratio to be determined in future discussions.

Resolution said its board agreed to a “two-week period of exclusivity” for Snow Lake to conduct a “high-level, red flags due diligence exercise on the Horse Heaven project”. This window aims to facilitate concentrated and confidential negotiations. Concurrently, Resolution said it would “undertake a similar high level, red flags due diligence on Snow Lake”.

Further, Resolution said it had communicated to Snow Lake its preference for any refined offer to “include a higher proportion of cash consideration than Snow Lake has indicated to RML to date” and “be structured as a ‘whole of company transaction’, rather than a simple asset acquisition”.

Snow Lake has reportedly signalled that it is “unlikely to change its position in relation to the above two items”.

The company reiterated that the offer remained “indicative and non-binding”, and that there was “no certainty that the due diligence process or the exclusivity period will result in a binding offer or that any transaction will ultimately proceed”. Though “the RML board is not minded to proceed with the indicative offer that has been put forward by Snow Lake”, that stance could change if Snow Lake presents a refined proposal during the exclusivity period.

Resolution only recently completed its acquisition of the Horse Heaven project, which lies adjacent to Perpetua Resources’ large-scale Stibnite antimony and gold development. The project has a rich legacy, having supplied antimony and tungsten to the US government during both world wars and the Korean War.