Alpha Lithium granted drilling licenses for Hombre Muerto Salar in Argentina

Alpha Lithium (NEO: ALLI) (OTC: APHLF) (German WKN: A3CUW1) (“Alpha” or the “Company”), a company with two large, undeveloped lithium assets in the Salta region of Argentina, is pleased to report that it has received licenses to commence exploration operations on its properties in the Salar del Hombre Muerto (“Hombre Muerto”) in Argentina.

The Company is already performing the mandatory health and safety checks of the rig and crew on the initial drilling rig, which it expects to mobilize to commence drilling before the end of this month. Alpha has secured a second drilling rig, which is s expected to join the ongoing operation as soon as possible in 2023.

Alpha intends to drill up to 12 wellbores on its 5,000+ hectare Hombre Muerto property over the next 12 months, in addition to implementing several new Vertical Electrical Sounding (“VES”) campaigns (see August 16, 2022 news).

Hombre Muerto is recognized as one of the most desirable salars in South America, as it hosts the (i) highest lithium brine grades, (ii) lowest levels of impurities and (iii) highest flow rates in Argentina. Hombre Muerto is Argentina’s longest producing salar, with Livent having produced 20,000 tonnes/year of battery-grade lithium for over 25 years.

At present, the Company controls over 5,000 hectares in Hombre Muerto. Until now, the salar has been primarily controlled by three large, multinational corporations: (i) Argentina’s oldest lithium chemicals producer, Livent (ii) Korea-based, POSCO; and, (iii) Australian producer, Allkem In 2022, after meeting with local government officials, POSCO announced plans to spend an additional US$4 billion on their 10,000 hectares in Hombre Muerto, signifying their intentions to tap into the rising demand for lithium.

The Company intends to increase its land position at Hombre Muerto and will update shareholders accordingly, when progress is made in this regard.

Brad Nichol, President and CEO of Alpha, commented, “To finally commence operations at Hombre Muerto is an incredibly exciting, game-changing moment for Alpha and its shareholders. Having developed Tolillar to a point where it continues to attract significant industry interest, our team can focus on expanding and repeating its past two years of rapid success in Tolillar, now, in Hombre Muerto.”

Hombre Muerto is only 10-15 km from Tolillar and, in the short-term, the Company will utilize the recently-enlarged camp at Tolillar as its home base for operations.

All operations and assets of the Company are in Argentina and are fully managed by Alpha Lithium Argentina SA (“Alpha SA”) utilizing local employees and consultants. Neither Alpha, nor Alpha SA, have any operations or assets in Canada.

Since initiating the first steps of an exploration program in 2020, Alpha SA has drilled more than 20 holes, constructed an in-house brine chemistry research laboratory, developed a proprietary Lithium Carbonate production process that works in Tolillar with remarkable success, started construction of a pilot plant, and employed dozens of highly skilled Argentinian technologists, engineers, geologists, geophysicists and chemists, in addition to several students, accounting, managerial and HR professionals. The Company is grateful for, and reliant upon, the significantly large Argentinian team that has proven instrumental at generating value for shareholders.