Published: January 4, 2023 |

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Sigma Lithium Corporation announced it has successfully commissioned the first module of the Phase 1 production plant, putting it on track to start commercial production in April 2023.

Phase 1 of the Greentech Plant was completed on schedule and within budget, Sigma noted in a statement.

The successfully completed tasks to date include energizing the substation and transformer, mechanical completion of the secondary and tertiary crushers, feeders and conveyor belts, electrical testing and running tertiary feeders and conveyor belts.

Going forward, Sigma said it expects to commence dense media separation circuit commissioning in February 2023 and first production to follow in April 2023.

The company hopes to start generating free cash flow in the second quarter of 2023, producing battery grade environmentally and socially sustainable lithium concentrate from its flagship Grota do Cirilo project.

In conjunction with engineering and construction, Sigma has been conducting continued exploration work with the goal of further increasing the mineral resources with the hopes of outlining a deposit which will comprise a Phase 4, expected to be larger than 20Mt.

An updated resource estimate is expected to be completed in 2023.

“We have rapidly advanced the commissioning of the Greentech plant, as planned, on schedule and on budget this month,” Sigma co-CEO Ana Cabral Gardner said in a statement.

Cabral-Gardner hailed Sigma’s technical team, led by Calvyn Gardner and Brian Talbot, saying the group “worked tirelessly and relentlessly” to make that happen.

“Our stellar team is what makes Sigma so unique: Simultaneously, our ESG teams have worked intensely to ensure the communities of Itinga and Araçuaí have been concomitantly lifted through Sigma’s transformative new social initiatives: allocating funding to build 2,000 rainwater collection systems and to empower 10,000 women through microcredit,” Cabral-Gardner added.

Co-CEO Calvyn Gardner told investors that the team is “laser focused” on delivering battery grade sustainable lithium following the conclusion of the commissioning of the Greentech plant in April 2023.

NEW LAND ACQUIRED

In addition to the plant commissioning, Sigma said that it had acquired land in Brazil via arms-length firm Miazga Participações SA for environmental preservation purposes and in setting carbon compensation.

Sigma outlined its objectives for the purchase, which include:
• Preservation of endangered tropical forestry that could be suppressed otherwise. Further donation of this area
  to the State Forestry Authority for permanent preservation.
• Miazga will subsequently utilize the Land on behalf of Sigma Mineração SA, an indirectly owned subsidiary of
  the company, which in turn shall receive regulatory environmental compensation credit as a result.
• Further advances towards achievement of net zero goals by 2025.

Sigma Lithium is currently in construction at its wholly owned Grota do Cirilo project in Brazil, which includes a state-of-the-art, green-tech processing plant that uses 100 percent renewable energy, 100 percent recycled water, and 100 percent dry-stack tailings. The project is one of the largest and highest-grade hard rock lithium spodumene deposits in the Americas.

Source: Proactive Investors

About Sigma Lithium
Sigma Lithium is a company dedicated to powering the next generation of electric vehicle batteries with environmentally sustainable and high-purity lithium. Sigma Lithium is currently in construction at its wholly owned Grota do Cirilo Project in Brazil, which includes a state-of-the-art, green-tech processing plant that uses 100 percent renewable energy, 100 percent recycled water, and 100 percent dry-stack tailings. Sigma Lithium represents one of the largest and highest-grade hard rock lithium spodumene deposits in the Americas. Sigma Lithium has been at the forefront of environmental and social sustainability in the EV battery materials supply chain.

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