The Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) share price closed 1.79% lower on Tuesday at 27.5 cents.
That remains midway between its 12-month low of 11 cents per share that it hit in late February and the high of 39 cents per share it reached in mid-April.
Following that April high, the Sayona Mining share price proceeded to drop to 12 cents per share in late June before recovering to its current price.
It's safe to say Sayona Mining shares have been on a rollercoaster ride this year. So what's going on with this ASX lithium stock?
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What's been happening lately?
Of course, much of the share price movement is likely influenced by the price of lithium. Additionally, a prediction by Goldman Sachs at the start of June that demand for lithium would fall in the future sparked a sell-off in lithium shares that continued for much of the month.
However, Sayona's strong recovery towards the end of the month could be attributed to a couple of discoveries. On 23 June, Sayona announced the discovery of lithium targets at the Mt Edon project in Western Australia.
On 27 June, the company revealed multiple new spodumene pegmatites had been identified at its Moblan Lithium Project in Quebec, Canada. The Sayona share price jumped 12% on the news.
The following day Sayona shares soared by another 25% on the back of plans to restart the company's North American Lithium (NAL) operation.
The NAL restart meant Sayona Mining could resume the production of spodumene concentrate in the first quarter of FY23. This allows Sayona Mining to become the first North American local supplier of lithium concentrates.
In late July, Sayona Mining released an update for the quarter ended June 2022, which was met with optimism. However, Sayona remains unprofitable, as my Foolish colleague Zach Bristow pointed out.
More recently, Sayona Mining agreed with existing shareholder, Acuity Capital, to increase the size of its At-the-Market Subscription Agreement (ATM).
Originally, the ATM provided Sayona Mining with up to $50 million of standby equity capital with an expiry date of 31 July 2023. This has been revised to a limit of $200 million and an extended expiry date of 31 July 2025.
Subsequent to this extension, Sayona Mining has agreed to issue an additional 155 million shares at nil consideration to increase Acuity Capital's total security holding to 250 million shares.
While this bolsters the financial base for Sayona Mining, it also means dilution of existing shareholders.
Sayona Mining share price snapshot
Year to date, the Sayona Mining share price has risen by almost 100%. It is also up 96% over the past month.
That is in stark contrast to the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which is down 6% year to date and up 6% over the past month.
Sayona Mining has a market capitalisation of $2.3 billion based on its current share price.
