Commissioning of the lithium mine is expected this month, with first shipments beginning in the second quarter of 2023, the company said.
During this first production phase, Grota do Cirilo is expected to generate up to 270,000 tonnes per year of high purity battery grade lithium concentrate, equal to about 36,700 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE).
Based on the results of a study to triple battery-grade lithium concentrate production, Sigma said the project has the potential to churn out 768,000 tonnes (104,200 tpa LCE) from the second to the eighth year of operations.
Such capacity would make Grota do Cirilo fall just outside the world’s top five lithium producers in terms of output capacity after Albemarle, SQM, Ganfeng, Pilbara Minerals and Galaxy.
Total output will then drop to 491,000 tonnes in years nine to 13, Sigma Lithium said.
The Vancouver-based miner noted that the planned expansion could be…
