Lion One Drills 4.6 m of 82.28 g/t Gold Near Underground Development at Tuvatu Gold Mine in Fiji

Lion One Metals Limited reported results from 4,370.20 meters of underground infill and grade-control drilling at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji. The work was conducted from two underground stations, 1160 and 1082, targeting the up-dip and down-dip extensions of the UR lodes in Zone 5 (UR1 and UR2), located in the southern part of the deposit.

Thirty of the 34 completed holes intersected high-grade mineralization. Three holes were abandoned, and four completed holes returned no results above the 3.0 g/t Au cutoff (TGC-0494, TGC-0497, TGC-0500, TGC-0522).

Reported top intercepts, all downhole lengths at a 3.0 g/t Au cutoff with true width not known: - TGC-0532: 82.28 g/t Au over 4.6 m from 72.73 m, including 302.15 g/t over 0.4 m - TGC-0532: 169.47 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 58.42 m, including 502.48 g/t over 0.3 m - TGC-0535: 153.94 g/t Au over 1.1 m from 24.3 m, including 547.05 g/t over 0.3 m - TGC-0544: 93.94 g/t Au over 1.7 m from 60.5 m, including 350.00 g/t over 0.4 m - TGC-0528: 285.13 g/t Au over 0.3 m from 89.55 m - TGC-0542: 186.00 g/t Au over 0.4 m from 108.1 m - TGC-0538: 19.32 g/t Au over 3.0 m from 1.0 m, including 64.05 g/t over 0.6 m - TGC-0515: 10.64 g/t Au over 4.9 m from 16.8 m, including 36.45 g/t over 0.6 m - TGC-0512: 18.13 g/t Au over 2.8 m from 127.5 m, including 46.83 g/t over 0.3 m - TGC-0535: 14.15 g/t Au over 3.3 m from 98.5 m, including 34.72 g/t over 1.2 m

The drill spacing was targeted at 12.5 m x 12.5 m over a 100 m strike length at each of the two stations. Most high-grade intersects are within 25 m of underground development. The company expects the data to be incorporated into the mine plan within six months. Holes TGC-0504 and TGC-0526 were drilled near the 1120 shrink stope, which has since been mined and processed.

In a corporate note, Lion One provided further details on securities held by new VP Corporate Development Ronan Geoghegan, including 1,000,000 options at a C$0.16 exercise price.

Lion One Metals Limited (LIO) is an operating producer with a narrow-vein underground mine and a 300 tpd plant. The company recovered approximately 3,291 oz in the quarter ended June 30, 2026, carries a going-concern flag, and has a market capitalization of roughly C$73 million. For a producer, drill releases typically move equity only when they materially change reserves, mine life, or net asset value.

The recent drilling was explicitly for underground infill and grade control. The reported intervals comfortably exceed the ~4.3 g/t quarterly head grade and sit in the same range as the 10.60 g/t first shrinkage stope. Thirty of 34 holes hit above cutoff within 25 m of development, with stopes scheduled within six months, confirming near-term feed.

On August 20, 2026, a Zone 2 hole moved the stock from C$0.14 to C$0.20, a gain of roughly 43%. Shares have since round-tripped to C$0.18, which is about 29% above the pre-anchor level but 10% below the post-anchor peak. The new best interval of 378 g·m is about 12.6% of the Zone 2 record's gram-metres, but as a grade-control hole in Zone 5, it is in line with Zone 5's own history rather than the Zone 2 exploration record.

The drilling does not change the scale, grade, or resource base. It modestly improves the probability that the near-term mine plan delivers higher-grade feed into the mill, which is the company's only source of cash to service roughly US$31.2 million of Nebari debt and a breached US$7 million working capital covenant.

Lion One Metals Limited (LIO) is an emerging Canadian gold producer headquartered in North Vancouver. The company operates the 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project on Viti Levu, Fiji, which comprises the high-grade Tuvatu alkaline gold deposit, an underground mine, a pilot plant, a tailings storage facility, and an on-site assay laboratory. The project also includes an extensive exploration licence over the entire Navilawa Caldera. Mining at Tuvatu utilizes narrow-vein underground methods, including shrinkage stoping, cut-and-fill, and long-hole techniques depending on vein geometry. The minimum mining width is approximately 1.5 m, and the first shrinkage stope produced 5,704 tonnes at 10.60 g/t Au.

Prior-period context not disclosed in today’s release indicates that for the nine months ended March 31, 2026, the company reported revenue of C$55.5 million, gross profit of C$24.1 million, and net income of C$9.7 million. The single quarter ended March 2026 generated C$14.4 million in revenue and C$0.66 million in net income. As of that period, the company held cash of C$8.15 million against total debt of C$39.6 million, total equity of C$225.4 million, and a book value of C$0.56 per share. The company’s management discussion and analysis carried a going-concern flag, citing a breached US$7 million working capital covenant with actual working capital of C$506,013 and a Nebari default effective January 31, 2026. The average realized gold price for the quarter was C$6,527/oz, compared to C$3,985/oz a year earlier.

Operational data from prior periods shows that production in the March 2026 quarter fell 38% quarter-on-quarter to 2,726 oz at a 4.2 g/t head grade, with recovery dropping to 71.7%. Production subsequently recovered to 3,291 oz in the June 2026 quarter at a 4.3 g/t head grade and a record 84.9% recovery. The mill is currently being expanded from 300 tonnes per day toward 400 tonnes per day in Phase 1, with a total capacity of 700 tonnes per day at an estimated cost of C$13.5 million. Exploration upside outside Tuvatu includes the Wailoaloa alkalic copper-gold porphyry discovery, located roughly 1 km northeast of the project, where the first-hole results returned 163.2 m at 0.17% Cu from surface.