Junior mining firm Murchison Metals Ltd (ASX: MMX) downplayed on Monday circulating speculations that its iron ore joint venture partner Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan is dropping out from its earlier deal with the company to develop the Oakajee Port and Rail project in midwest Western Australia.

Murchison Metals maintained that despite the emerging speculations of the Japanese firm's backing out from the Oakajee deal, it has yet to see any concrete evidence that Mitsubishi is all ready to crash out from the deal due to its dwindling interest to pursue the joint venture.

The iron ore miner requested entry into trading halt after the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) initiated a price query as the company acknowledged that "Murchison has been aware for some time of rumours concerning the ongoing role of Mitsubishi in the mid-west joint ventures."

Murchison attributed the rumours to articles that came out last week on The Australian newspaper and the DealReporter, which is an online news website, as the company asserted that its own investigation has been pointing to the fact that it "found no substance to the suggestion Mitsubishi is intending to withdraw or dilute its involvement in the infrastructure and mining joint ventures."

Further speculations were fuelled when the ASX requested Murchison to clarify why its share price suffered declines from $1.81 on Friday's closing to its 1125 AEST standing of $1.51 on Monday.

Following the clarifications made by Murchison Metals, its shares resumed trading and immediately shed 10 cents or 5.52 percent of values to trade down at $1.71 by 1400 AEST on the same day.