Car battery producer Sigma Lithium (NASDAQ: SGML) (TSXV: SGML) announced it started its crusher circuit plant commissioning last week.
On Tuesday, the electric vehicle battery company said it successfully commissioned the first module of the Phase 1 production plant on schedule and within budget.
It announced it has already energized the substation and transformer, finished electrical testing of the crusher motors and ran tertiary feeders and conveyor belts.
Future crusher circuit commissioning will focus on sequential and load tests completed by February 2023.
“We have been working laser-focused towards delivering battery grade sustainable lithium following the conclusion of the commissioning of our Greentech Plant in April 2023,” Co-CEO Calvyn Gardner said.
“Our technical team, led by Calvyn Gardner and Brian Talbot, has worked tirelessly and relentlessly this quarter to make that happen,” Sigma’s Co-CEO Ana Cabral-Gardner said.
“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 explained.
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Sigma buys tropical forest farmland for environmental preservation purposes
The company also announced that its local partner Miazga Participações S.A., has acquired a farm property with tropical forestry.
The acquisition had the objective of preserving endangered tropical forestry that could be suppressed otherwise. The company will donate this area to the State Forestry Authority (IEF – Instituto Estadual de Florestas) for permanent preservation.
Miazga will subsequently utilize the land on behalf of Sigma Mineração S.A., an indirectly owned subsidiary of the company and as a result, it will receive regulatory environmental compensation credit.
The CAD$221,000 acquisition was facilitated by Sigma Lithium, which entered into a loan agreement with Miazga with the purpose of funding Miazga to purchase the land.
The Loan Agreement is considered a non-arm’s length transaction under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange given that certain officers of Sigma Lithium, being Ana Cabral Gardner and Calvyn Gardner, are also directors of Miazga. Ana Cabral-Gardner and Calvyn Gardner also have an indirect shareholding interest in Miazga.
Primary operations of Sigma involve two companies owned by the co-CEOs of the company, Arqueana Empreendimentos e Participações S.A. and Miazga Participações S.A.. The company has entered into two right-of-way agreements with these companies to support its exploration and development activities within the Grota do Cirilo property, as well as with third-party surface owners in the Project area.
Sigma Lithium’s green-tech processing plant uses 100 per cent renewable energy, 100 per cent recycled water and 100 per cent dry-stack tailings. Sigma Lithium also represents one of the largest and highest-grade hard rock lithium spodumene deposits in the Americas.
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