Metal Energy's First Drilling at NIV Confirms a Large Porphyry Copper-Gold System; Mineralization Strengthens to the North and Remains Open

First-ever drilling at the NIV Cu-Au-Mo porphyry, Toodoggone district, BC. Eleven holes, 6,295 m completed; this release reports assays for five holes (NIV26-001 to -004, NIV26-011) and states that assays for NIV26-005 to -010 are pending. As reported:

• NIV26-011 (northernmost, final hole of season, 456 m long): 426.0 m @ 0.17% CuEq from 30.0 m to end of hole — 0.044% Cu, 0.09 g/t Au, 25 ppm Mo, 0.5 g/t Ag. Within it, 39.35 m @ 0.41% CuEq from 55.65 m, and within that 11.0 m @ 0.95% CuEq (0.55 g/t Au, 0.21% Cu, 136 ppm Mo, 3.0 g/t Ag) from 84.0 m. A second zone returned 47.75 m @ 0.25% CuEq from 172.75 m.
• NIV26-004: 326.45 m @ 0.17% CuEq from 5.91 m (0.037% Cu, 0.10 g/t Au); including 117.0 m @ 0.25% CuEq from 144.0 m (0.041% Cu, 0.17 g/t Au); including 6.0 m @ 0.89% CuEq (0.017% Cu, 0.76 g/t Au).
• NIV26-003: 43.94 m @ 0.30% CuEq from 106.16 m (0.038% Cu, 0.19 g/t Au); including 2.0 m @ 2.00% CuEq (0.036% Cu, 1.72 g/t Au). QA/QC review flagged as pending.
• NIV26-001 and NIV26-002: no significant porphyry intercepts; gold generally below 0.01 g/t. Vein intervals in these holes are not reported, pending QA/QC.

Also disclosed: CuEq basis (US$4.50/lb Cu, US$3,375/oz Au, US$60/oz Ag, US$25/lb Mo, 80% recoveries assumed for all metals, no metallurgical test work, assays uncapped, no cutoff, true thickness uncertain); ALS Geochemistry (Langley) as lab; company treasury approximately $4.2 million; Highland Valley drilling began November 7, 2026.

Company stage: pre-resource explorer, micro-cap (~C$17 million), no revenue. This is the highest-materiality category of news a company like this can produce — a genuine discovery test — so the bar for what would count as materially positive is high, and the question is whether the rock cleared it.

Expectation anchor: there is no prior intercept on this property — this is the first-ever drilling, so the anchor is the pre-drill narrative the market paid for: a 5 km Cu-Au-Mo soil and IP/magnetic anomaly, Teck and Centerra each at 9.9%, $9.25 million raised in December 2025 at $0.45 (hard dollar) and $0.729 (flow-through), and a chairman/CEO refrain that this could be "another discovery in the region." Embedded re-rating: none, and the reverse. The stock went from C$0.45 at the December 2025 financing to C$1.27 on March 4, 2026, then lower-highs to C$1.05 (May), C$1.04 (late August), and a breakdown to C$0.29 on October 26, 2026 — a 77% drawdown that pre-dates the assays. At C$0.33 the equity sits 27% of its high, below both placement prices, and assumes very little. So the asymmetry runs both ways: there is limited incremental downside to a weak print, and a low bar for a real one.

What the release changes: it converts an undrilled concept into a confirmed fertile magmatic-hydrothermal system with a potassic core, multiple intrusive phases, several vein generations and a coherent northward vector in grade, gold and alteration. That is genuine new geological information and it does enlarge the perceived footprint — two holes with several hundred metres of continuous mineralisation is more than was demonstrated a week ago. What it does not change: the grade. At 0.044% Cu and 0.09 g/t Au across the envelope, with the best copper anywhere in the release at 0.21% over 11 m, this is not yet a copper deposit; it is a large low-grade anomaly with a small internal gold-rich core. And the property's nearest cousin already shows better copper three kilometres away.

Net: the release adds scale but subtracts grade credibility. At a C$17 million valuation with C$4.2 million of cash, the market is unlikely to re-rate on 0.17% CuEq and is likely to focus on the copper number and on the six holes still outstanding. Weighting stage (explorer, first-ever holes) against substance (sub-cutoff grade, two barren holes of five, no cutoff, no true width, no metallurgy), the honest read is that this release is confirmation of a system and a deferral of the investment decision to the next batch of assays.

Metal Energy Corp. is a pre-revenue Canadian critical-metals explorer run by the Ore Group, with Charlie Greig (formerly GT Gold, associated with the Saddle North discovery) as CEO and Stephen Stewart as chairman. Three assets:

• NIV (Cu-Au-Mo, 100% controlled after an 80% earn-in plus a right of first refusal on the remaining 20%), Toodoggone district, BC; 12,500 ha; 32 km south of Centerra's Kemess; 2026 maiden programme of 11 holes / 6,295 m; no resource.
• Highland Valley (Cu-Mo-Ag-Au-Re, 100%), 240 km² in the Guichon Creek batholith adjacent to Teck's Highland Valley Copper; over 55,000 m of historical drilling in 402 holes by Asarco, Cominco and Hudbay, unverified by the company; Zones 1 and 2; multi-year permit for up to 50 sites; 2,000-3,000 m programme underway since November 7, 2026 at a $1.2 million budget; no resource.
• Manibridge (Ni-Cu-Co-PGE, 85%), Manitoba; early evaluation, with the option on the remaining 15% from Stardust having expired April 30, 2026.

Financial position: cash C$4.2 million (per this release), down from C$9.1 million at March 31, 2026; no debt, but current liabilities included a C$2.4 million flow-through premium liability and roughly C$1.0 million of deferred consideration at Q1-2026. FY-2025 net loss C$2.1 million; Q1-2026 net loss C$0.75 million. Teck Resources and Centerra Gold each hold 9.9% with top-up rights. Dilution is the funding model: 2,358,797 shares to Fox Tungsten in August 2026, 550,000 shares to the strategics at C$0.89, and 600,000 plus 862,708 shares for NIV property obligations.