Mr. John Banning reports

LION COPPER AND GOLD CORP. RECEIVES US$30.5 MILLION FROM NUTON TO ADVANCE YERINGTON COPPER PROJECT

Lion Copper and Gold Corp. has received $30.5-million (U.S.) from Nuton LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, further to the company's news release dated Nov. 24, 2025, pursuant to the parties' previously announced earn-in agreement relating to the advancement of the Yerington copper project in Nevada.

The financing represents Nuton's investment under stage 3 of the earn-in framework, and will be used to advance the definitive feasibility study (DFS) and associated permitting activities, including technical optimization, engineering, environmental studies and regulatory engagement.

"This investment represents a major execution milestone for Lion CG and further validates the scale, quality and strategic importance of the Yerington copper project," said John Banning, chief executive officer of Lion Copper. "This substantial partner funding enables the company to advance the DFS and permitting work without significant dilution and execution risk for Lion CG shareholders."

The Yerington copper project is located in a Tier 1 U.S. jurisdiction and has the potential, subject to the outcomes of continuing studies and permitting, to contribute to the domestic production of copper cathode. Establishing additional United States-based copper cathode supply is increasingly viewed as strategically important given rising demand from electrification, grid modernization, electric vehicles and data centre infrastructure, and continuing efforts to strengthen domestic critical mineral supply chains.

Lion Copper intends to progress the Yerington copper project toward qualification under the U.S. federal FAST-41 permitting framework, which is designed to enhance transparency, co-ordination and predictability in the federal permitting process for major infrastructure and critical mineral projects.

As part of the DFS work program, the Nuton technology is expected to be further refined, with the objective of improving copper recoveries and potentially reducing capital intensity and environmental footprint relative to conventional processing routes.

Lion Copper remains focused on disciplined project advancement, capital stewardship and long-term value creation as it advances Yerington toward potential development in support of secure, domestic copper supply.

About Lion Copper and Gold Corp.

Lion Copper is a junior mining company advancing its Yerington, MacArthur and Bear projects in Lyon county in Nevada through an earn-in agreement with Nuton. The project focuses on accelerating production from its long-life, low-strip-ratio, brownfield-advantaged Yerington copper project utilizing modern processing technologies.

About Nuton LLC

Nuton is an innovative venture that aims to help grow Rio Tinto's copper business. At the core of Nuton is a portfolio of proprietary copper leaching related technologies and capability that offers the potential to economically unlock copper from primary sulphide resources through leaching, achieving market-leading recovery rates and contributing to an increase in copper production at new and continuing operations.

One of the key differentiators of Nuton is the ambition to produce the world's lowest footprint copper while having at least one positive impact at each deployment site across five pillars: water, energy, land, materials and society.

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