Sigma Lithium Announces Selection of NASDAQ as Its U.S. Market for Its Dual-Listing, Participation at United Nations High Level Dialogue on Energy Transition and Provides Pre-Construction Update Following Release of 2Q21 Results
02 Septembre 2021 - 11:12PM
SIGMA Lithium Corporation (“
Sigma” or the
“
Company”) (
TSX-V:
SGMA ) (
OTC-QB: SGMLF )
is pleased to report that it selected NASDAQ for its dual-listing
in the United States and it will join the United Nations High-Level
Dialogue on Energy 2021 Transition that will take place in tandem
with the General Assembly opening week on September 24 in New York.
The Company is also pleased to announce the
significant progress made during the period towards construction of
the plant and mine for phase 1 production (“Phase 1
Production”) of its Grota do Cirilo’s high grade lithium
project in Brazil (the “Project”).
SELECTION OF NASDAQ FOR
DUAL-LISTING
- The Company has
selected Nasdaq as its U.S. market for its dual-listing venue, in
order to increase access to U.S. capital markets, while adhering to
one of the highest levels of global corporate governance,
transparency and diversity in the world.
- The Company is
pleased to report that its corporate policies and Board of
Directors are fully compliant with required Nasdaq and SEC
governance standards, including diversity recommendation of 40% of
representatives of women and minorities.
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND
GOVERNANCE
- The Company will
join the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Energy 2021
Transition that will take place in tandem with the General Assembly
opening week on September 24 in New York.
- The Company has
demonstrated its alignment with the Paris Climate Accord and has
targeted to reach net zero carbon emissions after its second year
of production in 2024.
- 26 years ahead
of U.N targets for Net Zero emissions in 2050 and six years ahead
of U.N Decade of Action targets outlined at 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate
change.
- Brazil is one of
the 10 Global Champions on Energy Transition for the UN High-Level
Dialogue on Energy 2021 together with Denmark, Germany, United
Kingdom, amongst others.
- The Company’s humanitarian relief
initiative for the population living in extreme vulnerability at
the Vale do Jequitinhonha (including distributing medical
facilities supplies and meals) has been replicated by the local
business community, in a pioneering demonstration of social
entrepreneurship by the Rotary Club of Araçuai.
PHASE 1 PRE-CONSTRUCTION
The Company has reported unaudited financial and
operating results for the second quarter ended
June 30, 2021 (“2Q21”) including a
comprehensive technical, operational and corporate update to
August 30, 2021, detailing the significant progress made
during the period towards Phase 1 Production of its Project.
Both the financial statements and an MD&A
are available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on the Company’s
corporate website at the following links:
https://www.sigmalithiumresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sigma-FS-Q2-2021-Final.pdf
and
https://www.sigmalithiumresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sigma-MDA-Q2-2021-final.pdf.
Highlights include:
PLANT PRE-CONSTRUCTION
- All detailed
engineering and preparation for civil construction workstreams
continued to advance on schedule and on budget.
- First milestones
of construction were achieved.
- Completed
clearing, grubbing and topsoil removal for the plant.
- Completed the final geotechnical
model on the plant site, concluding design and calculations of the
civil foundations and total volumes for the bulk earth moving (cut
and infill).
- Contracts for
bulk earthworks are in the bidding phase and are to be awarded by
the third quarter of 2021.
- Completed detailed topographic
survey for both plant and non-plant area to optimize layout design,
minimizing excavation.
- Building a
detour road around the construction site for public vehicles.
- Completed both
the final geotechnical and hydrogeological models as well as the
analysis for the two pits of the Project’s first mine (the
“First Mine”).
- Appointed Promon
Engenharia, a Brazilian engineering and construction company, to
join Australian Primero Engineering to complete detailed
engineering and manage civil construction.
- All
design-related activities of the production plant for the First
Mine (the “Production Plant”) were completed to
include consideration for a future parallel production plant for
the Second Mine.
- Key items
completed: process plant preliminary design, layout and 3D
modeling, standard drawings and packages and associated workstreams
relating to mechanical, piping, concrete & structural,
electrical, instrumentation and controls.
- The Company is
finalizing an updated project execution plan to augment
construction readiness.
ESG-CENTRIC DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONS
OF FIRST MINE
- The Company has
also completed the final optimized design of the two pits and waste
piles of the First Mine (with final operating parameters: berm,
ramp, ultimate wall slope angles). Designed the ROM pad for
Production Plant together with Promon.
- A key element of
the environmental strategy for Production Phase 1 was the decision
to open the First Mine as two separate pits to preserve the Piauí
River’s seasonal “stream” and its surrounding ecosystems.
- Optimized pits
for the First Mine have the benefit of additionally enhancing the
life cycle analysis of the Project by substantially decreasing its
carbon footprint by:
- Decreasing the
vegetation suppression of trees in the construction of the
pit.
- Segregating the
piles of mined waste and processed tailings with the goal of
potentially recycling the tailings into ancillary industries,
promoting a circular economy.
- Developed a
comprehensive grade control program utilizing geostatistical
methods to ensure feed grades are maintained within the expected
range. The proposed grade control system will be designed to
minimize schist waste rock dilution with the pegmatite ore recovery
at the pit.
CAPEX & BUDGET
- An updated
capital expenditure (“Capex”) budget with
increased accuracy is in progress, with “firm quotes” for ~70% of
construction items.
- The Company
intends to start placing orders for long-lead items during the
third quarter of 2021, reserving manufacturing slots with vendors
whose equipment is on a critical path for construction.
- The contracts
for earth moving and civil construction and the orders for long
lead equipment items will be funded with existing cash earmarked
for construction.
- The Company has
also formulated a procurement strategy to derive maximum Capex
effectiveness. Appointed TSX Advisors Ltda., specializing in
domestic and global procurement, including equipment and import
logistics to Brazil.
PHASE 2 FEASIBILITY STUDY
UPDATE
- The Company has
significantly advanced its feasibility study for the Phase 2
Production (“Phase 2 Production”),
contemplating potentially doubling the Project’s total capacity to
440,000 tons per year.
- The Company and
Primero completed all the metallurgical and variability
pre-feasibility test work at SGS Lakesfield in Canada with the aim
of customizing a flowsheet to process the spodumene from the
Project’s second mine (“Second Mine”).
- The DMS
metallurgical testing (pilot plant scale) achieved remarkable 60.7%
Li2O recoveries, producing a battery grade concentrate of 6.11%
Li2O.
- High recoveries
are a result of the Second Mine having exceptional mineralization,
similar to the First Mine, with large crystals of coarse
spodumene.
- The results
demonstrate that the spodumene from the Second Mine can be
successfully processed in an environmentally friendly DMS plant,
with similar flowsheet to the Production Plant for the First Mine
(without requiring a significantly more capital-intensive and less
environmentally friendly flotation process).
- The Company
completed all field work for the preparation of Phase 2 Production
pre-feasibility study, including geotechnical drilling and
hydrogeological analysis.
- Additional
drilling continues on the Second Mine seeking to both increase the
mineral resource and to strengthen the geological data for the
reserve block model (mining plan design).
- The Company is
currently working on the mining plan and final geotechnical
modelling of the Second Mine.
- The Company
completed a preliminary economic assessment for Phase 2 Production,
projecting mining an average of 1.68Mt per year during
approximately 12.7 years of projected mine life, which was included
in an updated feasibility study report filed on SEDAR on July 15,
2021.
- Projects
significant economies of scale for Phase 2 Production, expected to
result from the low Capex of adding a second
environmentally-friendly processing line and vertically integrating
it to the Second Mine and to the Production Plant.
PHASE 3 EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT OF
OTHER DEPOSITS WITHIN THE PROJECT AREA
- The Company is
accelerating its exploration activities in the areas covered by its
portfolio of mineral rights to rapidly increase the scale of the
Project’s estimated mineral resources by the first quarter of 2022
with the goal to further:
- Increase the
Projected mine life at the expanded production levels of 440,000
tons per year during Phase 1 and 2 productions.
- Increase
production output after 2024 in a third production phase should EV
penetration growth continue to accelerate, and lithium demand
forecasts continue to demonstrate strength.
- Determine the
ultimate potential of the Project’s mineralization while
demonstrating its uniqueness and high quality.
CORPORATE SUMMARY UPDATE
- The Company
maintains adequate liquidity and rigorous financial discipline. As
of August 30, 2021, the Company has $37.6 million (US$29.7 million)
in cash and cash equivalents, out of which approximately $34.4
million (US$28 million) is held in a construction-segregated
savings account (not subject to any restrictions and readily
available for disbursement).
- The Company
expects to have sufficient liquidity to conduct pre-construction
activities as well as finance all of the ongoing workstreams
contemplated by the Company's strategy to accelerate the
development of Phase 2 Production.
- In August 2021,
the Company was selected to represent Brazil as a delegate at the
global meetings of the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO), in the technical committee for lithium (TC
333) to promote the standardization in the field of lithium mining,
concentration, extraction, separation and conversion.
- Consistent with
its retention policies to manage human capital as well as with its
ethos of aligning incentives amongst all stakeholders and
shareholders, most of the compensation of the Company’s Board of
Directors is equity-based.
- The Company
granted an aggregate of 739,000 Restricted Share Units to
Directors. Ana Cabral-Gardner and Calvyn Gardner were not awarded
equity compensation.
COVID-19
- The Company continues to conduct all activities with strict
COVID-19 protocols in place for access to the construction site in
light of the “Delta Variant”.
- The Company is pleased to report that its personnel on site did
not suffer any infections during 2Q21 to date.
- The town of Itinga, where Sigma is headquartered, kindly
extended its vaccination program to Sigma employees, demonstrating
the strength of the host community’s support to the Company.
ABOUT SIGMA LITHIUM
Sigma is a Canadian company developing, with an
environmental sustainably ESG focused strategy, the largest hard
rock lithium deposits in the Americas, located in its wholly owned
Grota do Cirilo Project in Brazil. The Company has been
producing low carbon high purity lithium concentrate at an on-site
demonstration pilot plant since 2018. This pilot production has
been an important part of the successful commercial strategy of the
Company, shipping samples of its low carbon “green &
sustainable” high purity lithium to leading global potential
customers, for product certification and testing, with the goal of
participating in the rapidly expanding electric vehicle
(“EV”) supply chain.
The Company is in pre-construction and detailed
engineering of an environmentally friendly, fully automated, dense
media separator (“DMS”) production plant, that
will apply proprietary algorithms to digitally control the dense
media. The production plant will be vertically integrated into the
Company’s mining operations, exclusively utilizing as feedstock the
high purity spodumene ore with exceptional mineralogy from the
Project. The production plant will process the spodumene ore into a
high purity 6% battery-grade lithium concentrate engineered to the
specifications of its customers in the lithium-ion battery supply
chain for EVs.
The Company continues to demonstrate its
commercial and market relevance by significantly advancing its
strategic goals on three fronts: near-term production scheduled for
2022, completing the studies for the viability of production
expansion contemplated for 2023, and the determination of the
ultimate extent and unique high-purity quality of mineral resources
at the Company’s wholly-owned Grota do Cirilo Project, all while
maintaining its strategic leadership in ESG in the lithium supply
chain.
In order to secure a leading position supplying
the clean mobility and green energy storage value chains, the
Company has adhered consistently to the highest standards of ESG
practices, which were established as part of its core purpose at
inception in 2012. The production process will be powered by clean
energy and the Company will use state-of-the art water
recirculation circuits in its processing combined with dry stacking
tailings management. The DMS process of the production plant does
not utilize hazardous chemicals, as a result its tailings are 100%
recyclable into ancillary industries, such as ceramics.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Daniel Abdo (Sao Paulo) +55 11
2985-0089daniel.abdo@sigmaca.comir@sigmaca.com
Vitor Ornelas (Sao Paulo) +55 11
2985-0089vitor.ornelas@sigmaca.com
LinkedIn |
Sigma Lithium |
Instagram |
@sigmalithium |
Twitter |
@SigmaLithium |
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release includes certain
"forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities
legislation including statements relating to the ultimate duration,
impact and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic (including its impact
on financial markets and national and multinational economies
generally, and its impact on the growth of the electric vehicle
market and other impacts on the demand for lithium products) and
other forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are
necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that,
while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown
risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual
results and future events to differ materially from those expressed
or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements that
address future plans, activities, events, or developments that the
Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur are
forward-looking information, including statements regarding the
potential development of resources and drilling plans which may or
may not occur. Forward-looking statements and information contained
herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding,
among other things, the ability to complete the Annual Filings and
Interim Filings; the market price of the Company's securities,
metal prices, exchange rates, taxation, the estimation, timing and
amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating
costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory
approvals, environmental risks, title disputes, litigation risks,
failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated,
accidents, labour disputes, claims and limitations on insurance
coverage and other risks of the mining industry, changes in
national and local government regulation of mining operations, and
regulations and other matters including the COVID-19 pandemic.
There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be
accurate, as actual results and future events could differ
materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly,
readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to
update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as
required by law. For more information on the risks, uncertainties
and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ from
current expectations, please refer to our public filings available
at www.sedar.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for
the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
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