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- Federal Court of Appeals upholds Sigma’s environmental licenses
- Enables full resumption of mining-industrial operations
- Targeting 330,000 tonnes of annualised lithium oxide concentrate production by year-end 2027
- Court recognises significant economic importance to Vale do Jequitinhonha
Sigma Lithium Corporation (ASX: SAU) has resumed its mining-industrial operations in Brazil after winning a benchmark legal decision by a Federal Court of Appeals maintaining the validity of the company’s current environmental licenses.
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The win allows the resumption of Sigma’s mining-industrial operations with the company on track to scale its annualised production of lithium oxide concentrate to 330,000 tonnes by year-end 2027.
Sigma is the largest producer of industrial-mineral lithium oxide concentrate in the Americas, with its activities dedicated to supplying global producers of batteries.
However, it was impacted on September 8, 2026, when a local federal judge in Teofilo Otoni issued an emergency ruling in dissonance with Brazil’s democratic rule of law to suspend the company’s environmental licenses.
The subsequent benchmark comprehensive technical decision by Senior Federal Judge Mônica Sifuentes was favourable to Sigma Lithium, enabling the full resumption of its operations.
The Federal ruling granted the company an “Emergency Motion for Suspensive Relief” against the “Emergency” ruling by a local federal judge in Teofilo Otoni issued in dissonance with Brazil’s rule of law.
The judgement categorically stated that a prolonged stoppage would generate a significant lasting negative economic impact in the Vale do Jequitinhonha, one of the less economically advantaged regions in the State of Minas Gerais.
As a key engine of economic development in the region, Sigma Lithium created 19,000 direct and indirect jobs supporting their approximate 80,000 family members across 12 municipalities in the region – reaching beyond Sigma Lithium’s operations and encompassing its localised supply chain as well as participants of the Company’s comprehensive social transformation programs.
Sigma runs one of the world’s largest lithium production sites—the fifth largest industrial-mineral complex for lithium oxide concentrate—at its Grota do Cirilo operation in Brazil. It currently has a nameplate capacity to industrialise 330,000 tonnes of lithium oxide concentrate on an annualised basis at its mine and state-of-the-art Cleantech Industrial Plant.
SAU was steady at 1.4¢.
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