Mr. Ian Fraser reports

FATHOM ANNOUNCES UPSIZING OF PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED PLACEMENT TO $3.75 MILLION AND PLANNED 3,000-4,000 METER DRILL PROGRAM AT THE GOCHAGER LAKE PROJECT

Fathom Nickel Inc., based on very strong demand for its previously announced best efforts non-brokered private placement financing, has upsized the gross proceeds to up to $3.75-million. All other terms of the upsized offering remain unchanged. The upsized offering will consist of any combination of: (i) charity flow-through (FT) units at 4.8 cents per charity FT unit; and (ii) hard-dollar (HD) units at 3.1 cents per HD unit of the company. Crescat Capital LLC has agreed to make a strategic investment for at least 10 per cent of the upsized offering. The company is also pleased to announce a planned 3,000-to-4,000-metre drill program commencing mid- to late February, 2026, at the Gochager Lake project. The company anticipates drilling 10 plus or minus drill holes to test areas along strike of the historic Gochager Lake deposit where it recognizes favourable geology, geochemistry and geophysical signatures.

Ian Fraser, Fathom chief executive officer and vice-president of exploration, stated: "We are very much looking forward to the next phase of drilling at our Gochager Lake project. The surface work performed in 2024/2025 has significantly expanded the geological and geochemical footprint of the historic Gochager Lake deposit along strike northeast and southwest. Our exploration priority at Gochager was first to understand the geologic setting of the historic deposit and then work on building scale. The expanded geological footprint, specifically mineralized variable-texture gabbro occurring up to 3.5 kilometres northeast of the historic deposit, is very encouraging. Additionally, we look forward to testing areas of very robust multielement soil geochemical anomalies to determine the underlying geology. All drill holes will be probed with borehole electromagnetic (BHEM) surveys, an exercise that has proven to be very successful within the historic deposit area."

Q1 (first quarter) 2026 exploration program:

• 3,000 to 4,000 metres of diamond drilling;
• The final number of drill holes and final meterage will be dependant upon timing of completion of the winter trail and timing of drilling equipment arrival at the project;
• Winter conditions are anticipated to allow for drilling into the first week of April, 2026;
• Winter trail work currently on track for completion by mid-February;
• Minimum of 10 drill holes planned for the program;
• All drill holes will be probed using the BHEM tool;
• The purpose of BHEM is to identify zones of conductivity occurring off-hole of the drill hole trace. BHEM can detect strong zones of conductivity up to 50 metres off-hole. Off-hole BHEM zones of conductivity at the historic Gochager Lake deposit have proven to be the result of magmatic high-grade zones of Ni-Cu-Co (nickel-copper-cobalt) sulphide mineralization.

Ni-tenor* discussion:

• The company uses Ni-tenor values derived from the Gochager Lake deposit drilling as an exploration vector;
• Gochager Lake deposit Ni-tenor values replicate in mineralized gabbroic outcrop immediately north of the historic deposit and in several locales in mineralized gabbro outcrop along strike to the east-northeast;
• Fathom exploration thesis:
  • Ni-tenor calculations based on Fathom drilling at the historic deposit return 2 to 5 per cent Ni-tenor. Outcrop samples in vicinity of the historic deposit exhibit Ni-tenor values of 4.23 per cent to 4.79 per cent. Outcrop sampling of mineralized gabbro between Scurry Lake and Rainbow Lake suggest 4.51 per cent Ni-tenor. Drilling in this area will explore the occurrence of high-grade Ni-Cu-Co sulphide mineralization/zones in the vicinity of this outcrop.
• Drill holes will also be drilled in the other areas of mineralized gabbro where Ni-tenor exceeds 3 per cent.
• The company will also be drilling the multielement (Ni-Cu-Co) 1,500-metre-by-500-metre soil geochemical anomaly immediately south of Wolf Lake, the multielement soil anomaly north shore of Gochager Lake (1,650 parts per million (ppm) Ni, 116.5 ppm Cu and 373 ppm Co) and the multielement soil anomaly that runs into Weaver Lake.
• Drilling in these areas is designed to get an understanding of the subsurface geology and cause of the overlying soil geochemistry.
• The company will also utilize existing Fathom BHEM, surface TDEM survey results and historical 2008 VTEM survey results in the drill hole design/targeting process.

* Ni-tenor is the quantity of nickel contained within the sulphide component of the rock. At the Gochager Lake deposit, various styles of sulphide mineralization in gabbroic and ultramafic rock demonstrate Ni-tenors ranging from 2 per cent to 5 per cent. Ni-tenor is the percentage of nickel in sulphide only and is reported as the weight percent nickel in 100 per cent sulphide. Fathom only reports Ni-tenor calculations in drill core and rock assay samples where assays report more than 1 per cent sulphur. Calculations on samples below 1 per cent sulphur tend to be inaccurate with respect to contained nickel in the sulphide component.

Quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) disclosure statement

As part of its continuing exploration activities, Fathom is utilizing a portable Vanta XRF analyzer (pXRF) to provide real-time lithogeochemical, multielement data on surface rock chip samples and rock grab samples collected in the field. The Vanta XRF analyzer is a hand-held device, held in position for a total 120 seconds -- beam 1 (30 seconds), beam 2 (60 seconds) and beam 3 (30 seconds) -- to allow for an effective reading of elements occurring at that specific point and at that specific surface of a rock sample. All elements detected at that specific point; nickel, copper, cobalt plus key pathfinder elements, chrome and magnesium are recorded. The reader is cautioned that pXRF data should be treated only as an indication of elements, as the accuracy of the beam position on a particular element is variable.

Qualified person and data verification

Ian Fraser, PGeo, CEO, vice-president of exploration and a director of the company, and the qualified person as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101, has verified the data disclosed in this news release, and has otherwise reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release on behalf of the company.

About Fathom Nickel Inc.

Fathom is an exploration company that is targeting magmatic nickel sulphide discoveries to secure the supply of North American critical minerals and to support the global green energy transition. The company now has a portfolio of three high-quality exploration projects located in the prolific Trans Hudson Corridor in Saskatchewan:

1. The Albert Lake project, a 90,000-plus-hectare project that hosts the historic Rottenstone mine. Fathom exploration to date at the Albert Lake project confirms:
   • The high-grade Ni-Cu-Co-plus-3E (three elements) Rottenstone deposit mineralization extends to the south a minimum 40 metres and remains open;
   • The Rottenstone deposit is potentially offset and continues within the footwall of a prominent fault defined by drilling;
   • A new Rottenstone-like discovery (similar host rock and similar mineralization) by drilling 500 to 550 metres west-northwest of the historic mine; the 300-plus-metre Bay Island trend remains open along strike;
   • Similar Rottenstone-like host rock and mineralization intersected by drilling approximately 1.5 kilometres south-southwest of the historic mine (the Nic5-Tremblay-Olson area);
2. The 33,000-plus-hectare Gochager Lake project that hosts the historic Gochager Lake deposit. Fathom exploration to date at the Gochager Lake project confirms:
   • Vertical extension of Ni-Cu-Co mineralization a minimum of 150 metres below the historic Gochager Lake deposit interpreted boundary and very good potential for expansion of mineralization in all directions;
   • Multiple high-grade vertically oriented Ni-Cu-Co sulphide breccia mineralization zones and chutes occur within the historic deposit and the zones; chutes remain open for further expansion and delineation in all directions;
   • Surface mapping and rock geochemistry have confirmed the Gochager Lake deposit host/container rock extends 3.5-plus kilometres along strike east-northeast of the deposit;
   • Soil geochemistry has defined a favourable geochemical footprint, inclusive of the historic deposit, that now extends 8.6-plus kilometres;
3. The 10,000-plus-hectare Friesen Lake project, located 40 kilometres southwest of the historic Rottenstone mine and 30 kilometres northwest of the historic Gochager Lake deposit.

The Friesen Lake property hosts the Olsen Cu-Ni-Pt (copper-nickel-platinum) showing also referred to as the Friesen Lake Cu-Ni-Pt showing and is described as an ultramafic dike that historical trenching and drilling demonstrates Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd (copper-nickel-platinum-palladium) and Au (gold) mineralization within the ultramafic dike (Saskatchewan Mineral Deposit Index (SMID) No. 0928a). To date, Fathom has not performed any exploration at the Friesen Lake project.

We seek Safe Harbor.