Sigma Lithium To Resume Operations At Its Flagship Lithium Mine in Brazil Soon

São Paulo, August 14 (Argus) - Sigma Lithium CEO Ana Cabral said Friday the company plans to restart production at its flagship lithium mine in Brazil within one to two weeks.
The environmental agency of Minas Gerais suspended Sigma's operating license on July 23, citing improper environmental practices. Since then, both parties have been negotiating, and Sigma expects to resume mining operations soon.
"Best case, we could be back in production next week," Cabral said during a results call. "Worst case, it will take about two weeks." She added that negotiations have been "very constructive."
Cabral noted that Sigma, which focuses on Brazilian operations but is controlled by a Canadian parent company, was unclear about exactly which activities authorities had ordered it to halt, so it shut down its entire operation-from mining to industrial processing-even though official documents did not require such a shutdown.
Sigma is currently negotiating with Minas Gerais to sign a corrective action agreement (TAC). This agreement would allow Sigma to directly negotiate environmental measures, timelines, and compliance obligations with regulators, potentially providing greater legal and operational certainty.
It remains unclear whether Sigma's mine can resume operations before the TAC agreement is signed. If the company shut down facilities that were not required to be halted, it could theoretically restart them-provided those facilities were not included in the ban.
"During this current shutdown, we've still been able to process and ship lithium powder, which is what we've continued doing," Cabral said.
The environmental agency of Minas Gerais stated that Feam, the state's environmental regulator, is still analyzing and discussing the TAC agreement with Sigma, noting there is no timeline for signing.
Sigma is also seeking full dismissal of the charges related to the suspension, meaning negotiations may take longer than usual.
"Given the nature of the notices we received and the fact that most of these allegations are false accusations made by local inspectors, we're being quite strict on the terms of the agreement," Cabral said. "We want to clearly demonstrate that we engaged in no improper conduct."
Sigma's second-quarter lithium output remains unclear-CEO comments raise questions
According to the financial report, Sigma produced 35,400 tons of lithium oxide concentrate in the second quarter, all of it spodumene at 5% grade. Of this, 24,400 tons were sold.
However, Cabral's statements about production figures appear contradictory.
When asked about the ratio between high-grade spodumene and low-grade lithium powder, Cabral stated that all output in the quarter was high-grade. Later, she added: "The low-grade product produced in Q2 has not yet been sold and will be sold now," implying that low-grade lithium powder was indeed produced during the quarter.
It is currently unclear how much of the high-grade lithium output came from mining versus reprocessing of dry lithium waste. A source familiar with Sigma's operations believes the company is converting lithium powder production data into high-grade equivalents to inflate production numbers-a practice it also employed in the first quarter of this year.
Sigma reported a loss of $2.6 million in the second quarter, an improvement from the $18.9 million loss in the same period last year.