Arena Minerals Inc. announced it has entered into a Pastos Grandes Technical Collaboration Agreement (the Collaboration Agreement) with Lithium Americas Corp. (Lithium Americas). The intention of the Collaboration Agreement is to share technical information and explore opportunities for collaborating on potential development alternatives with the overall objective of optimizing the production profile of the Pastos Grandes basin.

The Collaboration Agreement shall be governed by a technical committee (the Technical Committee) comprising three members nominated by Lithium Americas, and three members nominated by Sal de la Puna Holdings Inc. (SdlPH) which is jointly owned by Arena (65%) and Ganfeng New Energy Technology Development (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. (Ganfeng Lithium) (35%). The Technical Committee will consider ways in which the parties can exchange information and ideas and otherwise collaborate to expand the knowledge of the parties regarding the geology and hydrogeology of the Pastos Grandes basin and the technical aspects of extracting, concentrating and processing brine to produce lithium products from their respective properties.

These include: Exploring and developing optimal processing technologies, including: production of 35% lithium chloride (6% lithium) directly from ponds, without the construction of a carbonate plant, production of lithium carbonate from 35% lithium chloride vs using a liming process with the construction of an on-site carbonate plant; and potential alternative direct lithium extraction technologies; Developing a basin-wide resource model, including a dynamic hydrogeological model and water resources/sources model; Developing an optimal brine production model from the combined tenements of SdlPH and Lithium Americas in Pastos Grandes, integrated with the basin-wide model and brine resources; and The coordination of any joint presentations and reports the parties agree to make together to the mining, environmental and water authorities, communities and any related stakeholder to the parties' respective project. Information to be shared includes environmental baseline data, drill hole and sampling databases, processing methodologies and concentration paths, and existing extractive model, including resource and dynamic brine models. However, neither LAC, Arena or SdlPH will provide, transfer, grant or license any intellectual property to the other, including patents, inventions and know-how, and neither party will acquire any interest in intellectual property owned by the other party.

This includes Arena's proprietary process aimed at producing 35% lithium chloride from evaporation ponds. The provision of such information is governed by a confidentiality agreement between the parties (the Confidentiality Agreement), which agreement contains specifics respecting the information to be shared by the parties and provides that the disclosure of information is subject to the discretion of each of Lithium Americas and SdlPH. The Collaboration Agreement also includes the common use of infrastructure owned by both companies, so long as the use does not interfere with the operation of the respective projects.

The infrastructure includes a fully equipped on-site analytical laboratory, pilot ponding facilities, a pilot carbonate conversion plant, and ancillary camp infrastructure. The first Technical Committee meeting has taken place, during which Lithium Americas and SdlPH set committee members, coordinated sharing of data, discussed infrastructure access and requirements, and approved the sharing/use of environmental baseline studies. Further initiatives were also discussed, including processing paths and development initiatives.

Further work will be disclosed as available.