The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index rose 19.65 points or 2.3% over the Mar. 21-25 trading week to end at 866. The top two gainers on the Venture Exchange by value for the period were both lithium companies. After more than quadrupling in value last year, the price of battery grade lithium carbonate has only continued to gain momentum this year.
Shares in Sigma Lithium, which is also listed on the NASDAQ, gained $3.20 apiece on the TSX Venture over the week to end at $18.14. Sigma has been producing battery grade lithium concentrate at a pilot scale at its 100%-owned Grota do Cirilo property, in Minas Gerais state, Brazil, since 2018. The company is building a commercial-scale plant that is scheduled begin production in the fourth quarter of 2022. Initially, production will be 220,000 tonnes per year of high purity 6% battery grade lithium carbonate, however an expansion to 440,000 tonnes per year is planned. The second phase of production at the deposit, which the company describes as the largest lithium hard rock deposit in the Americas, is in the prefeasibility stage. On Mar. 24, the company provided an update on its ESG commitments targeting food security, Covid-19 prevention, childcare and more in the Vale do Jequitinhonha region.
Rock Tech Lithium’s stock advanced $1.44 to end the week at $6.01. In February, the Vancouver-based junior reported it has started the permitting process to build Europe’s first lithium hydroxide converter in Germany. The company plans to start supplying lithium hydroxide to makers of EV batteries starting in 2024. Rock Tech is planning for the facility to be the first to achieve carbon neutrality. It’s also planning to provide full transparency of its value chain from raw material to end product, announcing in mid-March that it’s working with U.K.-based Circulor and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT to do so. The company plans to begin production with spodumene sourced from multiple parties in 2024. Rock Tech also holds the Georgia Lake spodumene project, 145 km northeast of Thunder Bay, in Ontario, for which it completed a preliminary economic assessment in 2021.
Shares in gold developer Artemis Gold rose 76¢ to $7.66 on no news. The company is advancing the Blackwater gold project in central B.C., 150 km southwest of Prince George. In February, the company announced it had landed a commitment letter and term sheet for $360 million to build the project, acquired from New Gold in 2020. The agreement provides for another $25 million in capitalized interest and a $40-million standy cost overrun facility. Artemis says a definitive credit agreement in the second quarter, and its B.C. Mines Act permit this summer. It closed a $176-million streaming deal with Wheaton Precious Metals late last year.
A September 2021 feasibility study outlined a capital cost of $645 million for the project. Over a 22-year mine life, Blackwater is expected to produce an average of 351,000 oz. of gold annually at an all-in sustaining cost of US$672 per ounce.
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