LONDON, Reuters Sigma Lithium39;s chief executive won39;t sell the miner at current lithium price levels and is concentrating on its nearterm expansion plans, she told Reuters in an interview.

The Vancouverbased company, whose main business is a hard rock lithium project at Brazil39;s Grota do Cirilo, started scouting for potential buyers about a year ago. Since then, prices for lithium, a metal key for electric vehicle batteries, have been pressured by slower than expected EV adoption worldwide along with overproduction in China.

CEO Ana CabralGardner said her focus was now on expanding operations.

At these prices, we are not selling, she said.

I am building a business, so I39;m doubling capacity, she added.

CabralGardner said last July that adviser Bank of America had been holding meetings for several months with parties interested in acquiring Sigma, and the company later said it had received proposals from the energy, auto, batteries and lithium refining industries.

As well as lower prices, Sigma has weathered a number of executive shakeups, including the firing early last year of former coCEO Calvyn Gardner, whom CabralGardner is divorcing, and a series of lawsuits in Brazil and the United States.

CabralGardner said Bank of America was still leading a strategic review of the company, but she declined to give details.

We started a strategic review, and we were like, okay, let39;s see if it makes any sense to do anything, she said. It was unfortunate we did…