*The Canada-based company Sigma Lithium has announced that it will invest R$492.4m (US$99.4m) in the construction of a second industrial lithium concentrate production plant in Brazil’s south-eastern Minas Gerais state. Sigma said that the new plant, in the Vale do Jequitinhonha region, will increase the company’s lithium production from the current 270,000 tonnes (t) per year by 240,000t per year. The plant’s construction, which Sigma expects to begin in the first quarter of this year, is being backed with a credit line from Brazil’s state-owned development bank (BNDES).