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A Sustainable Future for Mining
Innovative mining technology
Zero Drinking Water
100% of water used in production plant is sourced from sewage grade water that needs to be treated for industrial use
Zero tailings dam.
Dry stacking leads to low environmental footprint & upcycle opportunity
Project Summary
Sigma Lithium’s 100% wholly owned Grota do Cirilo operation is a fully integrated hard-rock lithium mining and industrial beneficiation complex. The site is located in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, one of the world’s premier mining jurisdictions. Here the team has access to first class supporting infrastructure and a deep pool of skilled labor.
The Company’s Phase 1 operations commissioned in 2023. Phase 1 has a nameplate capacity of 270,000 tonnes per annum of lithium concentrate and a first quartile cost structure. The Sigma Board of Directors has issued a Final Investment Decision on its Phase 2 expansion project, which is currently in construction and is expected to nearly double facility output.
The operations are supported by one of the world’s largest lithium deposits at 109mm metric tonnes of Measured, Indicated & Inferred resource at an average grade of 1.4% lithium oxide. Exploration geology teams have identified numerous additional targets providing confidence that this number will only increase.
Over time, the Company expects to grow lithium concentrate output to nearly 950,000 tpa through successive investments in mining and processing capacity.
Timeline
Initial Investment
- Sigma Lithium’s founder acquires Sigma Lithium, alongside the Brazilian refractory products maker Magnesita
- Mineral exploration starts at Grota do Cirilo
Private Equity
- A controlling shareholder is established via a fund managed by A10 Investimentos
- The first stage of mineral exploration is completed
Follow-on Investment
- Convertible bond offering
- Auditing mineral mining exploration results
Demonstration Plant start-up
- Equity Offering I (Initial Public Offering and listing on the TSX-V)
- NI 43-101 resource report filed
- Pilot plant start-up
DFS and Offtake
- Second NI 43-101 resource report filed tripling M&I Resources to 46mt
- NI 43-101 Definitive Feasibility Study for Phase 1
- Environmental licenses for construction and installation of commercial production plant
- Sigma as a case study at COP-25
- Sigma joins Mining & Tailings Safety Summit in London
Equity Funded & Acceleration
- Equity Offering II
- Project Finance Term Sheet for Phase 1
- Decision to accelerate Phase 2
Construction Commences
- Equity Offering III
- Preliminary Economic Assessment for Phase 2
- 2024 net-zero target and ESG board committee implementation
- Sigma Lithium listed on Nasdaq
- Equity Offering IV (including BlackRock)
- Grota do Cirilo construction begins
Phase 1 Construction & Commissioning
- Phase 1 and 2 Technical Report
- Successfully commissioned the first module of the Phase 1 production plant (the “Greentech Plant”), on schedule and within budget
- Project expansion: mineral reserves increased by 63%.
- Financing: Sigma secures US$100 million debt financing
Commercial Operations Begin
Phase 1 Production- Concluded crusher and plant commissioning by May 2023
- First commercial production by August and operations sustained nameplate capacity for month of December
- First shipment of lithium concentrate departs Brazil in July 2023, with five total shipments made during the year.
Phase 2 Commences Construction
Phase 1 Production- Increase mineral resource estimate by 27% to 109 million tonnes at 1.4% lithium oxide
- Board of Directors approves construction of Phase 2 expansion
- Earthworks begins for expansion to add 250,000t of capacity at the grota do cirilo operations
Our 1.5 million tonne per annum mining and industrial processing operation has a nameplate capacity of 270,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate. The plant was commissioned and began commercial operations in 2023.
The facility is comprised of a three-stage crushing circuit, a dense media separation plant, and a water reclamation / dry-stacking unit. The beauty of the Greentech Plant lies in its simplicity, enabling a concentrate production process devoid of chemicals, potable water, tailings dams and carbon-intensive energy.
Mining Operations:
Sigma Lithium’s Greentech plant is supplied by a two-pit mining operation close to the industrial site. The mining plan was devised to preserve the seasonal Piaui Creek, which services the surrounding communities.
The mine team deploys a comprehensive strategy to minimize the impact on the surrounding stakeholders while keeping the industrial operations supplied with adequate feed in a cost-efficient manner.
As lithium concentrate production increases, the mine team will adapt its operational footprint through successive mine expansions. The Company has a meaningful portfolio of resource opportunities, often with new pit structures required, further diversifying the supply for the Greentech Plant.
Resources:
A substantial resource and reserve balance supports Sigma’s operations. The Company engaged in a drill campaign through the second half of 2023, which increased its audited resource balance by 27% to 109mm tonnes in early 2024.
This resulted in a 40% increase in its Proven & Probable reserves balance to 77mm tonnes at 1.4% lithium oxide from a prior balance of 54.8mm tonnes at 1.44%. This balance supports an operational life of more than 20 years over two concentrate production phases.
Confidence is high in the organization that significant upside remains for the resource and reserve balance as the Company’s mineral concession package contains 200 known pegmatites. Given additional intercepts and exploration targets, Sigma Lithium believes its resource package to be in excess of 150mm tonnes on its 29 mineral concessions spanning roughly 20,000 hectares of land.
Sigma continues to invest in its planned growth strategy, with our phase 2 expansion project currently underway. This initiative will increase nameplate capacity by 250,000 tpa to 520,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate.
The phase 2 expansion represents a duplication our phase 1 asset, utilizing the same operational flowsheet and benefitting from the same geological patterns and mineralization. The on-site infrastructure at Sigma can support three industrial lines, leveraging site costs such as water pumping & filtration and electrical.
Sigma Lithium also expects to follow its Phase 2 buildout with a Phase 3 initiative, capable of taking on-site lithium concentrate production up by an additional 400,000 tonnes, to a total of 920,000 tonnes tpa.
