TSXV inches higher during July 24-28 trading week

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index added 13.1 points or 2.1% over the July 24-28 trading session to end at 625.1.

This week, leading in terms of value gainers was Sigma Lithium which closed Friday up $2.88 at $51.70 per share. The stock continues to trade at more than double its price 12 months ago, buoyed by lithium’s role in the energy transition, as well as Sigma’s July 27 announcement that it has shipped its first product from the Grota do Cirilo lithium mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The first shipment was produced at the Sigma “Greentech” plant. The company says its operation is the first lithium project without a tailings dam. Under an offtake agreement with China’s Yahua, the company sells its high-purity tailings grading around 1.3% lithium oxide as a by-product for further processing. The remaining tailings are dry-stacked. Sigma has started generating revenue from Phase 1 and expects to produce 130,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate this year as the operation ramps up. The company expects to achieve Phase 2 and 3 production in 2024, positioning it as one of the world’s largest lithium producers.

This week’s second-best value-gainer was Electra Battery Materials, which closed 75% higher Friday at $1.97. The company reported on July 24 an improved battery-grade cobalt supply agreement with LG Energy Solution, a global manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries, from terms initially announced in September 2022. Under the updated terms, Electra will supply LG with 3,000 tonnes of cobalt contained in a cobalt sulphate product in 2025 and a further 4,000 tonnes in the following years through 2029 for a total of 19,000 tonnes under an agreed pricing mechanism. Previously, Electra had agreed to supply LG with 7,000 tonnes of battery-grade cobalt over three years, starting in 2023. The value of the initial deal was estimated at US$63 million.

GoviEx Uranium was the Venture Exchange’s top-traded issue, seeing 8.3 million shares change hands to close the week at 12¢ per share. On July 18, the company reported an updated resource estimate for its Muntanga copper project in Zambia, moving most of the resources into the measured and indicated categories at higher grades. The measured and indicated resources have almost tripled and now represent 74% of total resources, increasing to 42.6 million tonnes grading 359 parts per million (ppm) uranium oxide for 33.7 million pounds. In its previous resource statement in 2017, measured and indicated resources were pegged at 16.1 million tonnes grading 353 ppm uranium oxide for 12.6 million lb., representing 29% of the M&I resources.