Sigma Lithium rebounds on new sales, Brazil denial

Sigma Lithium (TSX-V, NASDAQ: SGML) rebounded sharply Friday after the company announced additional sales of its product and strenuously denied media reports of an “operational injunction” on its flagship mine in Brazil.

Earlier this month, several news outlets in Brazil claimed that authorities had ordered a “shutdown” of waste piles at Sigma’s Grota do Cirilo operations in Minas Gerais due to environmental and safety risks.

The reports amount to “fake news” created by online media, using information published on falsified government websites, Sigma said Friday while blaming a “defamatory campaign” created to benefit short sellers. Authorities in the United States and Brazil – including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – have been notified, the company said.

Sigma “vehemently denies as ‘fake news’ the inaccurate recent media reports that incorrectly denominated as an ‘operational injunction’ an administrative process initiated by the Ministry of Labor and Employment,” it said in a statement Friday. Sigma “also states as categorically incorrect the media reports speculating about the status of the safety of its waste piles because of this administrative process, which does not represent a material event.”

Sigma has yet to respond to MINING.COM’s request for comment.

Shares of the company surged 17% to C$2.26 in Canadian trading Friday afternoon following the update, taking them back into positive territory for the year. Sigma’s market capitalization now stands at about C$2.3 billion ($1.6 billion).

Operation updates

Sigma also said Friday it had made an additional sale of 100,000 tonnes in high-purity lithium fines at the market price, which has risen since the last sale.

Additionally, the lithium miner said remobilization activities at its Brazilian mine site are proceeding as planned and expected to conclude this month.

Grota do Cirilo has a nameplate production capacity of 270,000 tonnes of lithium oxide concentrate a year – or about 38,000-40,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent). The company is building a second plant to double capacity.