The Jequitinhonha Valley mining company will triple the production of “green” lithium for electric batteries, jumping to 768,000 tons, with an investment of more than 100 million US dollars.

With this novelty from the miner, Sigma could become one of the four largest producers of lithium batteries in the world as early as 2025, estimates Canadian brokerage Canaccord Genuity, which specializes in mining.

According to Ana Cabral-Gardner, CEO of Sigma: “We will be able to scale our production without compromising our stringent sustainability standards: without using polluting chemicals in the filtration process, dry stacking and recycling the water we collect and treat from the Jequitinonha River.”

Faced with a market that was already hot, Ukraine’s post-war energy crisis became a temporary license to reverse environmental standards in mining the inputs needed for the energy transition, she says.

Currently, Sigma is preparing to become a zero-waste mine, due to the high demand for battery ores. Cabral announces that the company has received proposals to sell for $1,200 to $1,400 a ton of its waste, which contains lithium residue, as well as quartz and feldspar.