Under the joint venture, Northern Star was to use its best...

Under the joint venture, Northern Star was to use its best endeavours to achieve commercial production by July 31, 2018.
The project will not achieve production next month.
At the time of the JV deal, Tanami was granted a put option that gave it the right, but not the obligation, to sell 15% of Central Tanami to Northern Star for $20 million in cash or shares at any time up to the earlier of three years after completion, or at the achievement of commercial production.
Tanami said it plans to exercise the first put option by July 31.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Paul Hissey said the acquisition was an inexpensive addition to the portfolio and edged Northern Star closer to majority ownership.
Hissey suggested that it was likely Northern Star would eventually acquire the asset outright.
"In short, Northern Star can play the long game while its smaller partner has significantly fewer avenues to cashflow," he said.
Under the JV, once Northern Star achieves commercial production, the sole-funding period will end and Northern Star will earn an additional 30% in the project.
Tanami also has a second put option to potentially sell an additional 25% of the project to Northern Star for $32 million in cash or shares up to six months after commercial production is achieved.
The earliest Northern Star has allowed for Central Tanami production is the 2021 financial year.
In August last year, Northern Star said it would finalise the development plan for the project this financial year, though an update on the status will no doubt be provided at the company's strategy day in early August.
Central Tanami has a 1.1 million ounce resource and Northern Star sees potential for the project to be a 120,000-150,000 ounce per annum producer.
The Groundrush deposit at Central Tanami historically produced 610,000oz at 4.3 grams per tonne gold over four years.
Northern Star is keen on the Tanami region, with executive chairman Bill Beament last year describing it as "elephant country".
Late last year, Northern Star paid $4 million for Tanami's Western Tanami project, 90km from Central Tanami.
The company has also acquired ground in its own right, giving it 9200sq.km of tenure in the region.
Shares in Northern Star hit an all-time high of $7.25 yesterday and were 2.2% higher at $7.16 this morning.
"While Northern Star is trading at a premium to our target price [of $5.50], we believe there is a broader support for the Australian gold space given strong margins and balance sheets as well as the potential for significant further resource additions which can be hard to quantify in conventional valuation methods," Hissey said.