Power Metallic Reports High-Grade Lion Zone Results as Winter 2026 Drill Campaign Concludes

• Hole PML-26-050 returned 27.10 metres at 2.17% CuEqRec, including a 4.76-metre interval at 10.43% CuEqRec, confirming the eastern edge of the Lion Zone's high-grade copper shoot.
• Four additional MRE in-fill holes reported grades consistent with earlier drilling, supporting the conversion of Lion Zone resources to the Indicated classification ahead of a formal 2026 resource estimate.
• Near-surface drilling is focused on portions of the Lion Zone that the company considers potentially amenable to open-pit extraction, with multiple shallow holes still pending assay results.
• Exploratory holes to the east and west of the Lion Zone have helped define its structural boundaries, informing future geological modelling and drill targeting.
• Hole PML-25-021x returned 6 metres at 0.78 g/t gold, including 1.5 metres at 2.56 g/t, identifying a gold-bearing structure at depth that the company has designated the Elephant Target.

Power Metallic Mines Inc. (TSXV: PNPN | OTCBB: PNPNF | Frankfurt: IVV1) is a Canada-based mineral exploration company focused on advancing the Nisk Project Area in Quebec, a high-grade system carrying copper, platinum-group elements (PGEs), nickel, gold, and silver, with Lion and Tiger as its two active discovery zones. After securing rights to the Nisk project in 2021 and acquiring approximately 167 square kilometres of adjoining ground from Li-FT Power in June 2025, the company controls roughly 330 square kilometres across around 50 kilometres of prospective basin margins. Power Metallic also holds interests through a 50% stake in Chilean Metals Inc., which holds mineral properties in British Columbia and Chile, and through Power Metallic Arabia, a fully owned subsidiary that holds an exploration licence covering more than 200 square kilometres in Saudi Arabia's Jabal Said Belt, a region known for its copper, gold, and zinc mineralisation.

Lion Zone MRE In-fill Drilling Results and High-Grade Intersections

The primary focus of the winter 2026 campaign is in-fill drilling at the Lion Zone in preparation for a 2026 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE). An MRE is a formal, independently reviewed calculation of the estimated volume and grade of mineralisation within a defined area. In-fill drilling adds new holes between existing ones to increase data density, which is required to move resources from the Inferred category, based on wider-spaced drilling and carrying a lower confidence level, to the Indicated category, which requires tighter spacing and reflects a higher degree of geological confidence.

Hole PML-26-050 returned 27.10 metres at 2.17% CuEqRec, including 4.76 metres at 10.43% CuEqRec, confirming the eastern edge of the high-grade copper shoot. CuEqRec, or Copper Equivalent (Recovery-adjusted), converts all metals in a drill intercept into a single percentage based on their relative market values and estimated recoverable quantities. Supporting holes PML-26-051, 052, and 053 returned comparable results, with high-grade sub-intervals ranging from 3.48 metres at 3.65% CuEqRec to 4.35 metres at 5.94% CuEqRec, consistent with the geological model developed from earlier drilling.

Current MRE drilling has concentrated on the Lion Zone near surface, which the company notes may be amenable to early open-pit extraction in a possible future mining scenario. Several shallow holes are still awaiting assay results. 

CEO Terry Lynch commented: 

"Lion MRE drilling continues to deliver as or better than expected. The shallow hole success, which we expect assays to confirm what we are seeing in the cores, should be very supportive to the starter open pit. This all will support the upcoming MRE and PEA. On the exploration side the drill bit continues to give us clues and points us to more structures to test. We have 37 holes in for assay and we're drilling our last few holes of the winter campaign. The team remains very bullish on our discovery process."

Exploratory Drilling Programme and Zone Boundary Definition

In addition to the MRE in-fill work, Power Metallic completed exploratory holes to test the structural limits of the Lion Zone and nearby geological targets. Holes PML-26-056, 058, 059, and 060, drilled to the east of the zone, returned only low-grade values of up to 0.22% Cu, 0.20 g/t Au, 0.60 g/t Pd, and 0.21 g/t Pt, which the company states effectively defines the eastern boundary of the Lion Zone.

Two holes drilled 400 to 450 metres west of the Tiger Zone did not intersect sulphide mineralisation or the ultramafic rock unit present at Lion. Hole PML-26-066, designed to test an interpreted arm of the Tiger Zone, encountered copper and lead mineralisation at the surface-bedrock contact, then passed through two wide ultramafic units before returning 1.31 metres at 32.9 g/t silver between them. The company notes that the relationship between this intersection and the Tiger mineralisation down-dip remains unknown, and that further testing behind the initial contact mineralisation will be conducted when ground conditions permit.

Hole PML-26-062, drilled 800 metres west of Lion, intersected the favourable ultramafic host rock unit over a wide interval but returned no significant grades. These results, taken together, define the margins of the Lion Zone system and are expected to inform the geological interpretation ahead of the 2026 MRE.

Elephant Gold Target Discovery and Future Exploration Plans

Hole PML-25-021x was an extension of hole PML-25-021, originally designed to investigate a borehole electromagnetic (BHEM) anomaly detected at depth. The extension did not explain the anomaly, but in the process it entered a paragneiss formation, a metamorphic rock unit that forms the geological footwall, or lower boundary, of the Nisk deposit, at more than one kilometre below surface. This is the same rock unit where hole PMX-25-016 previously returned 1.5 metres at 34.6 g/t gold. Assay results from PML-25-021x returned 6 metres at 0.78 g/t gold, including 1.5 metres at 2.56 g/t gold.

The company describes this intersection as establishing a large-sized area of gold structure, associated with wide anomalous gold, arsenic, and tungsten. Power Metallic has designated this area the Elephant Target and plans to conduct summer fieldwork, including surface mapping, prospecting, and geophysical re-interpretation, to localise the structure and determine whether it warrants further drilling.

A PEA, or Preliminary Economic Assessment, is a study that provides an initial economic evaluation of a mineral project based on the resource estimate. Power Metallic has indicated that results from the current drill campaign will feed into both the 2026 MRE and a subsequent PEA, outlining a sequential development path for the Lion Zone while exploration continues on other parts of the land package.

Looking Ahead

With 37 drill holes awaiting assay results and the final holes of the winter campaign underway at the time of this release, Power Metallic's stated near-term priorities are completing the 2026 Mineral Resource Estimate for the Lion Zone and advancing toward a Preliminary Economic Assessment. Summer fieldwork on the Elephant Target will assess whether the identified gold structure warrants follow-up drilling. The company controls approximately 330 square kilometres at the Nisk Project Area and continues to run successive drill programmes across the Lion, Tiger, and broader exploration targets on the property.

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