Mr. Thomas Ullrich reports

ASTON BAY IDENTIFIES 17 NEW BASE AND PRECIOUS METAL SHOWINGS AT THE EPWORTH COPPER-SILVER PROJECT, NUNAVUT, CANADA

Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. has released results from the 2025 summer field program at its Epworth sediment-hosted copper-silver-zinc-cobalt-gold project, located 80 kilometres southeast of Kugluktuk in Nunavut, Canada.

Highlights:

• 17 new base and precious metal showings discovered during the 2025 field program at the Epworth copper-silver project in Nunavut;
• High-grade copper and silver returned, including up to 29.2 per cent copper with 217 grams per tonne silver in grab samples from chalcocite veins at the Greenback showing;
• Copper-gold mineralization identified, with assays up to 5.42 per cent copper and 1.89 g/t gold and 3.73 per cent copper with 2.08 g/t gold in disseminated sediment-hosted styles of mineralization;
• Strong zinc-lead results, including up to 10.1 per cent zinc and up to 17.8 per cent lead, plus elevated cobalt values up to 379 parts per million cobalt;
• Mineralization spatially associated with MobileMT (mobile magnetotelluric) conductors, supporting a robust sediment-hosted copper system and potential for significant buried mineralization;
• Results further derisk and refine targets for a planned 2026 drill program, testing both high-grade veins and large-scale stratiform copper-silver-cobalt mineralization;
• Prospecting and mapping identified 17 new base and/or precious metal showings spatially associated with MobileMT geophysical anomalies, including zones yielding up to 29.2 per cent copper with 217 g/t silver, 5.42 per cent copper with 1.89 g/t gold, 3.73 per cent copper with 2.08 g/t gold, as well as up to 10.1 per cent zinc, 17.8 per cent lead and 766 ppm cobalt from select grab samples.

"We are extremely pleased to discover multiple base and precious metal showings during the 2025 mapping and prospecting program in the southern portion of the property, an area that had seen little previous exploration," stated Thomas Ullrich, chief executive officer of Aston Bay.

"These strongly mineralized zones indicate an efficient mineralizing system, and their location immediately above the large geophysical conductors defined by the MobileMT survey suggests a link to potentially more mineralization hidden in the subsurface. Critically, copper, zinc and gold mineralization have been discovered in the rarely outcropping Recluse group rocks, the proposed source of the geophysical anomalies, supporting our theory that those conductors may represent a potentially significant amount of mineralization yet to be discovered in the subsurface.

"With the market trend toward record copper and silver prices, we are excited to integrate the new data into an anticipated 2026 drill program targeting potential large and high-grade stratigraphic (sediment-hosted-style) copper-silver-cobalt mineralization as well as high-grade silver-copper veins."

Bruce MacLachlan from Emerald Geological Services, vendor of the Epworth property, added: "Emerald Geological Services believes that the discovery of these multiple new base and precious metal showings on the Epworth project highlights the huge potential of this land package and its underexplored nature. Every field program brings us closer to unlocking that potential as we increase our understanding of the geology and mineralization."

2025 field program

Seven crew members from Emerald Geological Services spent four weeks working at two float-plane-supported campsites on the property. Fieldwork focused on the southern half of the property, where the 2024 property-wide MobileMT geophysical survey identified both deep, lower-frequency conductors (up to 900 metres below surface) and near-surface, higher-frequency conductive anomalies. This area was only sparsely prospected before the new geophysical data were received. The conductors are postulated to correspond to pyritic and graphitic layers in the shales of the Recluse group, which may act as a trap for metal-bearing fluids (see Aston Bay's June 5, 2025, news release for more discussion). Exploration also focused on the dolomites of the Lower Rocknest formation and the clastic sedimentary rocks of the Upper Odjick formation, which are known to host sediment-hosted copper mineralization such as that found in the Central African copper belt.

The showings, sampled from outcropping, subcropping (broken but deemed in place) rock and local boulders, are described in Table 1 and categorized by the styles of mineralization present. Of 309 select grab samples, 22 yielded greater than or equal to 1 per cent copper, 22 samples yielded greater than five g/t silver, 16 samples yielded greater than 1 per cent zinc, and seven samples yielded greater than 0.5 g/t gold.

Discussion of results

Of the styles of mineralization encountered in the 2025 field program, the highest copper and silver values were returned from vein-hosted copper mineralization in Lower Rocknest dolomite, present at the Greenback, Greenback North, BC, Kid and Expert showings, with Greenback returning 29.2 per cent copper with 217 g/t silver in chalcocite veinlets. The Greenback showing is similar in character to the Payback copper-silver showings in the northern part of the property, which originally returned up to 61 per cent copper and 5,600 g/t silver (Payback South showing, see March 1, 2024, Aston Bay news release). Both are spatially associated with diabase dikes and with MobileMT conductance anomalies.

Disseminated mineralization in Upper Odjick clastic rocks yielded significant copper and gold values at the Expert and Clastic showings, with up to 5.42 per cent copper and 1.89 g/t gold at Expert and up to 3.73 per cent copper and 2.08 g/t gold at Clastic. The Alone showing falls along the same trend as Clastic (and likely along the same fault-offset trend as Expert and Greenback) and returned 0.66 g/t gold. These showings, especially Clastic, may be analogous to the historical WB showing in the south-central part of the property, which historically returned values up to 3.3 per cent copper, 0.27 g/t gold and 0.03 per cent cobalt in quartzite boulders. The WB showing was subject to the focus of a minor 1995 drill program (1,170 metres) by Noranda, which did not locate the source of the mineralized boulders but intersected similar reduced coarse clastic sediments with disseminated pyrite plus or minus chalcopyrite over widths of up to 27 metres (Rees and Petrie, 1996).

Vein-hosted copper mineralization in the Upper Odjick clastic rocks and mafic sills returned interesting copper values in generally narrow (maximum 40-centimetre) quartz veins or dolomite veinlets. This style of mineralization was present at the Expert, Pass and Trek showings. The highest copper value obtained from this style of mineralization was 2.39 per cent at Pass, from quartz-dolomite veinlets with chalcopyrite. Gold values up to 306 parts per billion gold at Expert and 161 ppb gold at Trek were also obtained from this style of mineralization.

Numerous new showings of greater than 1 per cent zinc-lead mineralization hosted in Lower Rocknest dolomites were discovered, including the Expert, Trio, Val, Bob, 3BD, KN, JM North and MT showings. The best zinc value of 10.1 per cent was obtained from the 3BD showing from subcrop. The Bob and Val showings in the western part of the property, along the same trend, returned the best lead values of the program of 17.8 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, along with up to 1.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent zinc, respectively.

An important style of vein-hosted or disseminated copper-lead-zinc mineralization was discovered at the Hike showing in clastic rocks of the Recluse group, with values up to 0.34 per cent copper (with 223 ppb gold), 3.75 per cent zinc and 0.18 per cent lead in separate samples within the Recluse group rocks. This supports the geologic model in which pyritic or graphitic shales act as traps for base-metal-bearing fluids. The Hike showing is also spatially associated with both low-frequency and high-frequency conductive EM anomalies from the 2024 MobileMT survey. As the easily weathered (recessive) Recluse shales typically form topographic lows and therefore do not outcrop well compared with more competent rock units, the Hike showing may be a difficult-to-find indicator of additional buried mineralization.

Many of the major new showings show good spatial correlation with both low-frequency and high-frequency conductors. Expert, Alone and Clastic are more marginal to the conductors, but their location is on the east margin of a syncline that dips toward the conductors. Most showings also occur along or proximal to the Rocknest-Odjick contact, as has been observed elsewhere on the property.

The company is integrating the new data into an anticipated 2026 drill program targeting both large and high-grade stratigraphic (sediment-hosted-style) copper-silver-cobalt mineralization as well as high-grade silver-copper veins.

Qualified person

Michael Dufresne, MSc, PGeol, PGeo, and Coleman Robertson, BSc, PGeo, are non-independent qualified persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and have reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.

About the Epworth property

The Epworth property is located approximately 80 kilometres southeast of the village of Kugluktuk (formerly Coppermine) in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut, Canada. The property is approximately 70 kilometres from tidewater to the north. Logistical access is provided by float plane and helicopter from Kugluktuk and the city of Yellowknife less than 500 kilometres to the south. The property consists of 85 claims covering an area of approximately 102,200 hectares (252,542 acres) over a trend approximately 94 kilometres in strike length and 20 kilometres in lateral extent.

Agreement

Aston Bay has entered into an agreement with Emerald Geological Services, under which Aston Bay can earn an 80-per-cent undivided interest in the property by spending a minimum of $3-million in qualifying exploration expenditures over a four-year period. See Aston Bay's April 24, 2024, news release for details of the agreement and Aston Bay's June 4, 2025, news release for additional property details.

Quality assurance/quality control protocols

Grab samples at the Epworth property were collected, documented and photographed in the field by Emerald Geological Services personnel, then placed in sealed bags and periodically sent out by float plane from the camp to a secure location in Yellowknife. Subsequently, the sample bags, sealed with security tags, were shipped by transport to Activation Laboratories (ActLabs) in Thunder Bay, which is an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory. Grab sample collection is subject to Emerald Geological Services' internal QA/QC protocols, which include the insertion of certified reference materials (CRMs) into each batch of samples submitted. These CRMs consisted of OREAS 166, a high-grade sedimentary copper standard; OREAS 920b, a blend of barren slate and mine waste rock; OREAS 230, a low grade-gold standard; OREAS 24d, barren basalt; OREAS 135b, a blend of black slate and zinc-lead-silver ores; and OREAS 24b, barren granodiorite.

Rock samples referenced in this news release were analyzed using ActLabs method UT-6M, a four-acid total digestion with ICP-OES/MS finish, yielding geochemical results for 48 elements. Samples with overlimit base metal results (greater than 1 per cent) were further analyzed using ActLabs method 8-4 acid total digestion, a total digestion with ICP-OES finish, and lead samples greater than 15 per cent were further analyzed using ActLabs method 8-peroxide ICP-OES, a sodium peroxide fusion with ICP finish. Samples with overlimit silver results (greater than 100 ppm) were further analyzed using ActLabs method 8-Ag, a gravimetric fire assay. Most samples were also analyzed using ActLabs methods 1A2-50, a 50-gram fire assay with atomic absorption finish for gold, with overlimit results analyzed using method 1A3-50, a 50-gram fire assay with gravimetric finish. Select samples were analyzed using ActLabs method 1C-Exp, a gold/platinum group element fire assay with ICP-MS finish.

About Aston Bay Holdings Ltd.

Aston Bay is a publicly traded mineral exploration company exploring for high-grade critical and precious metal deposits in North America. The company is exploring the Storm copper property and the Epworth copper-silver-zinc-cobalt property in Nunavut.

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