Site visit: Sigma’s Grota do Cirilo lithium mine operating at capacity following restructuring

Benchmark’s July visit to Sigma Lithium's Grota do Cirilo operation in Minas Gerais, Brazil, came just before the company reported its strongest operating quarter in over a year. Sigma Lithium had paused operation at the mine in October 2025 for upgrades, though the restart was complicated by three waste piles at the site being shut down following a, now-resolved, government inspection at the start of 2026. Federico Gay, Benchmark’s principal lithium analyst, visited the site mid-July to “establish whether the mining restart had genuinely taken hold”. The visit also offered a chance to see on the ground how the self-imposed restructuring of its mine, following a period of operational bottlenecks, resulted in a significant operational turnaround “On the evidence in front of us,” Gay said, “the mine is operating at full capacity, with active blasting, continuous load and haul operations on both pits, supported by a fully functioning DMS plant, with a clear path of growth ahead."