Corrects the timeline to triple production in lede to 2027 from 2030
Sigma Lithium has cancelled plans to begin lithium sulphate production in Brazil and will instead focus on tripling its lithium oxide production by 2027, chief executive Ana Cabral told Argus.
As lithium prices decline, market participants are turning to midstream processing to secure steadier output of cathodes and precursors, the main cost drivers for EV batteries.
Sigma Lithium has not aimed for midstream processing but wanted to start lithium sulphate production in Brazil by 2027, before halting plans after spodumene prices bottomed. Lithium sulphate can be produced directly from spodumene and is an intermediate precursor for batteries because it can be refined into both lithium carbonate and hydroxide.
"We're not pursuing chemical production anymore — not until we're fully ready," Cabral said. "We are still navigating a down market, so we are focusing on what we know best: producing increasingly larger volumes of lithium oxide concentrate."
The company's plan is to first double the capacity of lithium oxide concentrate production, and then triple it.
Sigma is the top lithium producer in Brazil and owns the fifth-largest spodumene project in the world, the 270,000 metric tonne (t)/yr Grota do Cirilo, whose phased expansion plans are well underway.
"The infrastructure we installed for Grota do Cirilo can support three production facilities, so by 2027, we plan to hopefully be constructing our third production facility," Cabral said. Phase two will expand the mine's capacity to 520,000 t/yr by the end of this year. The ultimate goal is around 768,000 t/yr of spodumene.
By scaling production, Sigma hopes to cut costs. The company's $594/t all-in sustaining costs are second only to Talison Lithium's Greenbushes mine in Australia, according to Cabral.
"Our goal is scale — the very scale that allows Greenbushes to maintain lower costs than Sigma, despite operating in a higher-cost environment," she said. "Scale is what drives down per-ton costs, and that's precisely what we are pursuing."
Greenbushes, the largest hard-rock lithium mine in the world, produced 1.38mn t of spodumene in 2024, compared with Sigma's 240,828t.
