Mr. Charles Funk reports

HELIOSTAR RESTARTS MINING OPERATIONS AT SAN AGUSTIN, DURANGO

Mining, crushing, conveying and stacking of ore onto the leach pad at Heliostar Metals Ltd.'s San Agustin has recommenced.

Highlights:

• Restart of mining operations at San Agustin;
• Mining the reserve will produce 45,000 ounces at an AISC (all-in sustaining costs) of $1,990/GEO (gold-equivalent ounces) providing a margin of over $2,300/oz at current spot gold prices;
• Oxide targets drilling program under way with 37 holes completed and submitted for analysis.

Heliostar chief executive officer Charles Funk commented: "Restarting mining at San Agustin is a significant milestone for Heliostar. It delivers on our guidance of a Q4 2025 restart issued at the beginning of the year and sets the company up for a large increase in consolidated gold production in 2026. Mining the current reserve will produce 45,000 ounces of gold expected to generate $40-million (U.S.) in cash flow at a $3,000 (U.S.) gold price. Further, the company is in the middle of a 10,000- to 15,000-metre drill program focused on finding potential extensions of the orebody that may support an increase in mine life at San Agustin.

"Investing in Heliostar at the beginning of the year required trust that the many undefined opportunities recognized by our team within our portfolio could be progressed. We move toward the end of the year having crystalized many of these opportunities. We have certainty in our production profile at San Agustin and La Colorada going into 2026 and look forward to providing formal guidance in January. We have shown the value of our growth opportunities with studies on our flagship Ana Paula and Cerro del Gallo projects. With more drilling completed in 2025 than the entire previous history of Heliostar, we aim to continue to build on our 8.2 million gold and gold-equivalent ounce M&I resource base. We plan to deliver continued production growth and grow the value of Heliostar on a per-share basis. We are only just getting started!"

Restart update

The company announced it had received the final approvals from the government to restart mining at San Agustin on July 22, 2025. Since that time, Heliostar has rapidly advanced work to restart mining activities at the operation. This included purchase and transfer of the surface access rights to Heliostar, adjusting the location of a power line tower and establishing surface access roads to the Corner area.

Over the past several months, the company has relocated the vegetation and topsoil at the Corner area and recommissioned the 30,000-tonne-per-day crushing circuit while residual heap leach operations have continued uninterrupted. This has allowed Heliostar to restart open pit mining with two ore blasts and two waste blasts completed to date. The mining contractor has successfully mobilized 90 per cent of the mobile equipment fleet to site which will allow the operation to achieve production targets. Crushing activities continue to ramp up to full capacity with stacking of new oxide ore on the leach pad under way.

Technical report summary

On Jan. 14, 2025, the company filed an amended and restated technical report titled "San Agustin Operations, Durango State, Mexico, NI 43-101 Technical Report" prepared by Todd Wakefield, RM SME, mine technical services, David Thomas, PGeo, mine technical services, Jeffrey Choquette, PE, Hard Rock Consulting, Carl Defilippi, RM SME, Kappes Cassiday and Associates, and Dawn Garcia, CPG, Stantec, with an effective date of Nov. 30, 2024.

The life-of-mine (LOM) plan set out in the technical report indicates that a probable mineral reserve of 68,000 ounces of gold can be exploited based on 1.2 years of mine life at a site level all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1,990 (U.S.)/oz Au. The initial capital cost in the technical report is estimated at $4.2-million (U.S.).

The technical report demonstrates a posttax NPV (net present value) 5 per cent of $35.3-million (U.S.), a posttax IRR (internal rate of return) of 548 per cent and a payback period of 0.2 year for the upside case at a $3,000/oz gold price.

The mineral reserve estimate included in the technical report is based on operation of the existing crusher and conveyor system having a nameplate throughput capacity of about 30,000 tonnes/day and the continued operation of the heap leach and carbon-in-column (CIC) process circuit processing ore from the expanded open pit. The mineral reserve estimate included in the technical report is presented below. The expected operating performance and operating cost forecasts were compiled with the benefit of benchmarking historical performance at San Agustin and the input of seasoned professionals knowledgeable of the conventional technologies being used at San Agustin, the expected consumption quantities of key supplies and commercial pricing for goods and services in Mexico.

Oxide growth targets

With mining now started at San Agustin mine, the company is working to extend the mine life. To date, 37 drill holes totalling 3,300 m from the continuing 10,000 to 15,000 m drill program have been completed with assays pending. This drill program is focused on defining additional gold-bearing oxide gold material at the margins of the current pit and at the edge of the Corner Area that can extend the life of the operation. Drilling at the Corner SW, MKT and Phase 3 SW areas has been completed with the drill currently active at the Corner SW area.

Higher-grade oxide results from the priority Corner SW target area drilled by a previous operator include:

• Hole 14-SAGRC-196 grading 3.52 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 18.3 metres from 32.0 metres downhole;
• Hole 14-SAGRC-177 grading 0.34 g/t gold over 15.24 metres from 27.4 metres downhole.

The targets are the extensions of mineralized corridors defined by grade control drilling and through a comprehensive relogging and multielement reassaying program undertaken by Heliostar geologists in H1 2025. The increase in gold price has also increased the potential of certain lower grade areas that were not previously a priority at San Agustin. The base case economics in the January, 2025, technical report were shown at a $2,100/oz gold price within resource pit shells calculated at $2,150/oz.

Statement of qualified person

Stewart Harris, PGeo, a qualified person, as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release and has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Harris is employed as exploration manager of the company.

About Heliostar Metals Ltd.

Heliostar is a gold mining company with production from operating mines in Mexico. This includes the La Colorada mine in Sonora and the San Agustin mine in Durango. The company also has a strong portfolio of development projects in Mexico and the United States. These include the Ana Paula project in Guerrero, the Cerro del Gallo project in Guanajuato, the San Antonio project in Baja Sur and the Unga project in Alaska, United States.

We seek Safe Harbor.