Altair Resources Inc. said Aug. 9 that it signed an asset purchase agreement with Atlas Precious Metals Inc. for the acquisition of a solvent extraction plant, which was initially offered to the miner in April when it acquired the Pan American zinc mine and Caselton mill in Nevada.

The plant will be acquired in exchange for US$150,000 in cash and US$270,000 worth of common Altair shares at a deemed value of 40 Canadian cents apiece.

Altair will use the plant to modify the zinc and lead/silver flotation circuits at Caselton in order to treat tails produced from flotation containing manganese carbonate. After leaching, the clarified soluble manganese sulfate solutions will pass through the solvent extraction plant for upgrading and purification and then to electro-winning to produce electro-manganese dioxide.

The acquisition is expected to close on or around Aug. 31.