Origen Resources Inc. announced an update to its ongoing exploration on its 100% owned Los Sapitos Property in the San Juan Province of Argentina. Highlights: Sampling confirms lithium prospectivity. District-sized land position covering entire salar and potential basin extensions.

Geophysics to begin shortly to identify drilling targets. Preliminary results from the ongoing sampling at Los Sapitos are encouraging. A series of silt samples collected from the Los Sapitos salar were treated with both an acid and a purified water wash.

The results show that significant lithium is found both in clays and in evaporite mineralization on the eastern margin of the basin with results of up to 824 mg/L found in the most eastern samples collected to date. Map: the location of the samples collected during the most recent sampling program at the Los Sapitos salAR. Values shown represent lithium derived from an 'Acid Leach' completed on the silt samples.

These results are evidence that lithium extends over the entire basin fed from a single aquifer at depth. The basin is elevated at this location and sampling teams were unable to get to the water table. Brine samples collected from the western part of the basin returned the most anomalous results from a small depression in the west of the salar.

Close to those found during previous sampling programs. The amount of lithium in the brine at this location may be a function of sampling teams being able to tap deeper into the water table. Basin morphology is now thought to be governed by a regional thrust faulting that runs through the property forming a significant depression and catchment for lithium bearing fluids. This approach has allowed for the discovery of Maricungas and Tres Quebradas far to the south of the Lithium triangle.

Tres Quebradas was sold in 2020 for CAD 782 million, and is about to enter commercial production. Origen Resources has staked a commanding land along the southern extent along this trend. Origen previously recognized that the geology of the mining-friendly northern San Juan Province was similar to that of within the lithium belts in the north of the country.

Guided by this exploration model Origen was able to acquire a district-sized contiguous land package around a mostly-buried salar. Preliminary exploration in 2021 was met with immediate success: surprisingly high grades of lithium in brines at surface in the main salar area of Los Sapitos, with one sample returning 391 mc/l. This discovery was a vindication of the exploration model. Origen believes that the style of mineralization transitions from the mature salars of the lithium triangle with an obvious visible surface expression to a mostly-buried, sediment-rich aquifer similar to those found in the Clayton Valley, Thacker Pass and elsewhere.

Origen has since expanded its land holdings with a total of 331 km2 staked over several prospective basins in northern San Juan Province.