Summary of Highlights
Highlights for the three months and year ended December 31, 2025, and subsequent period thereto, include the following, details of which are discussed later in the release:
8-rig drill program underway at Lunahuasi, following multiple new discoveries made during Phase 3 program completed earlier in the year. The Company's Phase 4 drill program at Lunahuasi commenced in October 2025 and reached steady-state drilling with eight rigs by mid-November. To date, the Phase 4 campaign has completed approximately 88% of its targeted 25,000 metres, with assay results received and released thus far confirming the system's high grades, size and continuity. The current campaign is planned to continue until May 2026, and builds on a highly successful Phase 3 program completed in 2025, which confirmed two new discoveries at Lunahuasi, a copper-gold porphyry system and a unique style of mineralization comprised of ultra high-grade gold in quartz veins, in addition to significantly extending and defining the high-grade copper, gold and silver vein mineralization that comprises the original discovery.
Environmental approval received for a proposed Lunahuasi exploration adit. In March 2026, subsequent to the 2025 year-end, NGEx Minerals received approval from the Mining Authority of San Juan Province, Argentina, for a proposed exploration adit at the Lunahuasi project. Approval of the Environmental Impact Statement ("DIA", or Declaración de Impacto Ambiental) for the adit, is a crucial next step in the Lunahausi story, which will enable the Company to proceed with underground development once additional sectoral permits are received. When complete, the adit is expected to provide a platform to conduct exploration and definition drilling, metallurgical sampling, and geotechnical assessment, which are all key inputs for future technical studies and project evaluation. The approval significantly increases NGEx's optionality for future exploration and development at the project.
Treasury strengthened with oversubscribed $175 million private placement. On October 15, 2025, the Company closed a non-brokered private placement of common shares, successfully raising gross proceeds of $175 million. The financing was upsized from its initial amount of $100 million in response to strong investor demand. Net proceeds from the financing further bolstered the Company's strong treasury position, which consisted of $132.1 million in cash and short-term investments as at September 30, 2025. Net proceeds from the financing will fund the Company's activities well beyond its current work programs, as well as provide financial flexibility to expand the current Lunahuasi campaign or undertake additional work, such as the development of an exploration adit.
Spin-out of royalty company to shareholders. On October 23, 2025, the Company closed its spin-out of an 80.1% ownership interest in LunR Royalties Corp. ("LunR") to its shareholders by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act such that effectively, among other things, each registered shareholder of common shares of NGEx would receive 1/4 of a common share of LunR for each common share of NGEx held as of end of day on October 22, 2025. LunR was incorporated by the Company in July 2025 as a wholly-owned subsidiary, which acquired a 1.38% net smelter returns ("NSR") royalty on the concessions underlying the Company's Los Helados project in Chile (the "LunR-Los Helados Royalty") and a 1% NSR royalty on the Argentine concession on which the Lunahuasi deposit is currently defined (the "LunR-Lunahuasi Royalty"). Immediately following the closing of the spin-out, NGEx retained 13,370,107 common shares of LunR, representing a 19.9% ownership interest in LunR at the time, which are still held by NGEx Minerals as at the date of this News Release.
Wojtek Wodzicki, President and CEO, commented, "We continue to build on NGEx and its predecessor companies' track record of value creation, going from strength to strength in 2025. The spin-out of LunR to shareholders has had a tremendous reception in the market, and our foresight in retaining a significant interest in the Lundin Group's debut royalty vehicle gives NGEx shareholders continued exposure to LunR's success, while also affording the Company with a liquid, valuable and non-dilutive financing tool for the future.
In addition, we have also continued to deliver on our core business of exploration in the rapidly-evolving Vicuña district. Following a successful Phase 3 program at Lunahuasi completed in May 2025 that identified two new styles of mineralization and significantly expanded the footprint of the deposit, Phase 4 drilling has now completed over 22,000 metres to date with results confirming the deposit's unique combination of size and grade. With an approved DIA now received for the proposed exploration adit and a strong treasury balance, we are looking forward to successfully closing out the Phase 4 program and have already begun looking ahead to the next phase as we continue to advance exploration at this remarkable deposit."
NGEx Announces New Appointment to its Board of Directors
NGEx is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Peter J O'Callaghan to its Board of Directors, effective March 20, 2026. Mr. O'Callaghan was a Partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP for over twenty-five years, and served as Office Managing Partner from 2018 until his retirement in December 2022. Mr. O'Callaghan's practice encompassed all types of M&A and corporate finance transactions, with a focus on the mining sector. He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree and a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from the University of British Columbia. As a result of the changes, NGEx's Board of Directors will have a total of nine members.
2025 Operating Highlights and Outlook
Phase 4 Lunahuasi Program Builds on Highly Successful Phase 3 Campaign
In May 2025, the Company completed the Phase 3 drill program at its 100%-owned Lunahuasi project, located in San Juan Province, Argentina, with 25,003 metres completed in 24 holes. Phase 3 highlights included:
Delivery of some of the highest-grade copper, gold, and silver intercepts drilled globally in 2025;
Consistent intersection of high-grade, high-sulphidation vein mineralization across considerable widths and strike length, which significantly improved the Company's geological understanding of three initial zones, named Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, each representing a significant volume of contiguous high-grade mineralization. Additional significant intersections outside of these three zones point to the likely presence of other discreet high-grade zones which have the potential to be defined with additional drilling;
Confirmation of two new discoveries at Lunahuasi, a new copper-gold porphyry system (see News Release dated May 21, 2025) and ultra high-grade gold in quartz veins (see News Release dated July 8, 2025), which respectively represent the third and fourth distinct types of mineralization identified to date at the project; and
Expansion of the mineralized volume drilled to date at Lunahuasi to minimum dimensions of 1,100 metres by 1,200 metres by 1,200 metres, which remains open in all directions and is marked by high-grade intercepts at the northern, southern and western boundaries of the drill pattern as of the conclusion of the Phase 3 program.
Following the highly successful Phase 3 program, in October 2025, the Company launched its Phase 4 program at Lunahuasi with six rigs. The Phase 4 program was ramped up to eight rigs by mid-November, and is expected to continue until the program's conclusion in May 2026, subject to weather. Phase 4 drilling has been designed to further explore and define the four distinct styles of mineralization found to date at Lunahuasi, which include disseminated and stockwork high-sulphidation copper-gold mineralization in addition to the three types of mineralization identified above. The minimum 25,000-metre drill program will consist of three targeted ranges of drill spacing to accomplish different objectives, including metres allocated to test new drill targets outside the current drill pattern, namely:
Short-range Definition: Define and expand the Mars, Saturn and Jupiter zones.
Mid-range Step-out: Extend mineralized intersections and discover new high-grade zones in the deposit beyond the three zones noted above.
Long-range Exploration: Test anomalies and district scale targets to discover new components of the Lunahuasi system and demonstrate its true potential.
To date, over 22,000 metres have been drilled, representing 88% of the target for Phase 4, with initial holes focusing on short-range definition and closer step-outs to test the geological interpretation and potential for expansion of Lunahuasi's Mars, Jupiter and Saturn zones. The Saturn zone was intersected by numerous holes, including most notably DPDH048, DPDH051 and DPDH057, while holes such as DPDH054 and DPDH060 successfully tested the Mars Zone, and DPDH053 tested Jupiter (see News Releases dated December 17, 2025, January 12, 2026 and February 10, 2026). Key highlights from the assays received and released thus far from Phase 4 include:
Saturn zone: Successful expansion and continued intersection of high-grades throughout
DPDH048 intersected 649.00 metres at 1.64% copper equivalent ("CuEq") (0.73% Cu, 1.00 g/t Au, and 20.1 g/t Ag), including 126.55 metres at 5.09% CuEq (2.16% Cu, 3.30 g/t Au, and 59.2 g/t Ag) in the Saturn zone 100m below DPDH046 drilled during Phase 3.
DPDH051 intersected 327.40 metres at 3.74% CuEq (2.43% Cu, 1.53 g/t Au, and 21.8 g/t Ag), which is punctuated by multiple very high-grade sub-intervals such as 7.30 metres at 14.50% CuEq (10.98% Cu, 2.49 g/t Au, and 193.3 g/t Ag) and 5.80 metres at 14.40% CuEq (11.97% Cu, 2.73 g/t Au, and 50.8 g/t Ag). DPDH051 was drilled north to south to test the geometry of the Saturn zone perpendicular to most other holes, and its results were consistent with the zone's geological interpretation with high-grade gold intervals correlating well with other holes.
DPDH057 successfully expanded the Saturn zone vertically above the mineralization intersected previously in hole DPDH049, intersecting 131.00 metres at 5.09% CuEq (3.10% Cu, 2.03 g/t Au, and 58.2 g/t Ag), including 30.00 metres at 7.91% CuEq (4.00% Cu, 4.58 g/t Au, and 64.5 g/t Ag) and 40.20 metres at ...
