Atlas Iron has gone into a trading halt pending the release of an announcement.
The company says it will remain in pre-open until either Monday or when the announcement is released to the market, which ever comes earlier.
In a statement the iron ore miner said it expected to clarify an article in the media.
The move comes after speculation in The West Australian today that the David Flanagan-headed iron ore miner was close to finalising the sale of a majority stake in its 2 billion-tonne Ridley Pilbara magnetite deposit.
It said that shares in the company had closed $2.13, up 12 per cent for the month, following expectations that there was a deal to sell 70 per cent of the magnetite deposit, which has been speculated to possibly net Atlas $150 million.
The West article said talks to sell the majority of Ridley began in mid-2009 when it began looking for a partner, possibly from China, Japan, Korea and India.
In the report, The West also said that Atlas was understood to be in "advanced offtake talks" over its Wodgina deposit, which is due for a resource upgrade later this month.
The Ridley magnetite project is fully-owned by Atlas and consists of banded iron formation, which forms part of the Ridley Range, with an average in-situ resource grade of 36.5 per cent Fe.
The resource, which was estimated by CSA Global consultants, converts into a 970 million tonne reserve capable of producing 330 million tonnes of magnetite concentrate at 68.3 per cent Fe - enough to sustain a world-class mining operation for more than 30 years.
