Mr. William Randall reports

ARENA MINERALS DISCOVERS 275 METRE AQUIFER AVERAGING 441 MG/L LITHIUM AT FORTUNA II CLAIM BLOCK AND PROVIDES SAL DE LA PUNA PROJECT DRILL UPDATE

Arena Minerals Inc. has completed the first exploratory drill hole (R-01) on the Fortuna II claim block, which forms part of the Sal de la Puna project (SDLP project) located in the Pastos Grandes basin within Salta province, Argentina. The rotary exploratory hole is the first to test the eastern subbasin of Pastos Grandes and intersected a continuous brine column from 240 metres to 515 metres downhole. This 275-metre brine column averaged 441 milligrams per litre (mg/L) lithium (Li).

The discovered aquifer is dominated by medium to fine sands with minor halite, bound by upper and lower clay horizons that could act as confining layers if proven continuous. This discovery suggests Pastos Grandes high-quality brine continues to the eastern subbasin and may be hydraulically connected. The brine maintains its favourable high-quality geochemistry with an average magnesium to lithium ratio of 5.6 to 1 and sulphate to lithium ratio of 11.2 to 1; both comparable with the Pastos Grandes main basin brines.

William Randall, president and chief executive officer of Arena, stated: "This discovery, on the first exploration drill hole completed by Arena, opens a whole new portion of the basin for resource growth and greatly exceeds our expectations. The quality of the aquifer and discovered brine suggests that this eastern subbasin could be productive and potentially expand the size of our business model in the future." Mr. Randall added: "The exploration drill rig has moved on to test other claims in the basin, where we hope to further expand the brine-bearing aquifers on our land holdings."

R-01 was completed as an observation well with two-inch diameter blank and screened PVC casing to 450 m depth. Depth-specific brine sampling was carried out in R-01 over the entire brine column using double packer sampling systems. The top of the hole intersected fresh- to brackish-water down to approximately 70 m. The fresh/brackish water column is separated from the brine column by low-permeability clay layers.

Drill program update

Resource definition drilling has been completed on the main Almafuerte and Graciela claim blocks of the SDLP project. DDD-01 at Graciela reached a total depth of 700 m. Brine was encountered at 120 m downhole and continued down to drill depths. The hole encountered dominantly clay-rich lithologies. The upper portion of the brine column has been sampled using HydraSleeves. Samples are pending laboratory analysis.

A third rotary drill is drilling a new production well at the Alamafuerte claim block. The well (PW-1) is being drilled at 15-inch diameter down to 500 m depth and will be completed with eight- and 10-inch diameter production casing between 350 m and 500 m in the lower brine gravel aquifer encountered in diamond drill hole DDD-02. This lower gravel aquifer averaged 503 mg/L Li with grades as high as 557 mg/L Li (for further details refer to press release dated April 11, 2022). A 30-day pumping test in PW-1 is scheduled for November, 2022, during which water level responses will be monitored in adjacent observation wells.

Two rotary drills are operating on the exploration claim blocks. Drill hole R-01 has been completed on the Fortuna claim block, located in the eastern subbasin of the Pastos Grandes basin, as described above.

Two additional exploration holes are being drilled at Barreal II and Patovica I claim blocks. R-02 has been drilled to a total depth of 80 m below surface at Patovica I with a target depth of more than 400 m. R-03 has been drilled to a final depth of 617 m below surface on Barreal II. Detailed logs and sampling of both these holes are pending.

Arena is operating the drill program on behalf of Sal de la Puna Holdings Ltd., which is jointly owned by Arena (65 per cent) and Ganfeng New Energy Technology Development (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. (35 per cent).

The drill program initially focused on the Almafuerte and Graciela blocks which border Lithium America's Pastos Grandes project to the south and southeast and consists of 3,000 m with the objective of both increasing the category of the current resource and increasing the SDLP project's resource base. Exploration holes are designed to test previously undrilled portions of the Pastos Grandes basin with the objective of expanding the resource beyond the known aquifers in the Almafuerte and Graciela claims blocks.

The drill program is jointly designed and supervised by the company and Atacama Water consultants. All brine samples are sent to SGS Laboratories, Salta, Argentina, an independent and fully international accredited laboratory for analysis for lithium multielement induction coupled plasma spectroscopy. Arena has a regimented quality assurance/quality control program where at least 10 per cent duplicates, blanks and standards are inserted into each sample shipment.

Stock option grant

The company further announces that it has granted one million incentive stock options to directors, officers and employees of the company. The option to purchase common shares in the capital of the company, at a price of 50 cents per common share with an expiry date of Dec. 30, 2025. The stock options vest immediately and have been granted under the terms of the company's stock option plan. The closing price of the company's common shares on Aug. 15, 2022, the date of the grant of the stock options, was 49.5 cents per common share.

About Arena Minerals Inc.

Arena owns 65 per cent of the Sal de la Puna project covering approximately 11,000 hectares of the Pastos Grandes basin located in Salta, Argentina. The claims are highly prospective and share the basin with two advanced lithium brine projects. In addition to Sal de la Puna, the company owns the Antofalla lithium brine project in Argentina, consisting of four claims covering a total of 6,000 hectares of the central portion of Salar de Antofalla, located immediately south of Albemarle Corp.'s Antofalla project. Arena has developed a proprietary brine processing technology using brine-type reagents derived from the Antofalla project with the objective of producing more competitive battery-grade lithium products.

Arena also owns 80 per cent of the Atacama copper property within the Antofagasta region of Chile, and 5.8 million shares of Astra Exploration. The projects are at low altitudes, within producing mining camps in infrastructure-rich areas, located in the heart of Chile's premier copper mining district.

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by William Randall, PGeo, a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Randall is a director and is the chief executive officer and president of Arena.

We seek Safe Harbor.