Mr. George Ogilvie reports

HERCULES EXTENDS COPPER PORPHYRY DISCOVERY AT SOUTHERN FLATS ZONE, HERCULES PROJECT, IDAHO

A 200-metre stepout drill hole, HER-26-01, has extended mineralization west of Hercules Metals Corp.'s Southern Flats discovery hole HER-25-25 (see press release dated May 26, 2026). The Southern Flats zone represents the second copper porphyry centre discovered at the company's Hercules project in western Idaho since 2023, when the Leviathan copper porphyry system was initially discovered.

Highlights:

• Potential southern extension of Leviathan: 3-D modelling suggests the new Southern Flats zone may be an approximately one-kilometre southern extension and therefore potentially continuous with the Leviathan copper porphyry system defined to the north.
• Drilling to fill the gap: Assays are currently pending for drill hole HER-26-04. Two drill rigs are currently drilling holes HER-26-05 and HER-26-06, focused on expanding Leviathan to the south and infilling the one-kilometre gap in drilling toward Southern Flats.
• Significant scale potential: Mineralization at both Southern Flats and Leviathan is centred on a large magnetotelluric (MT) and induced polarization (IP) anomaly that continues several kilometres south into the largely untested Pegasus target. The Hook target three kilometres to the east appears to be a parallel structure with a similar geophysical anomaly.
• Vertically extensive: Drilling at Southern Flats shows strong vertical continuity. HER-26-01 was terminated in a late porphyry intrusion. Mineralization is interpreted to occur on either side of the late porphyry; however, the hole was terminated due to depth.
• Enrichment potential: The strong copper enrichment that occurs in the upper portion of Leviathan has not yet been located at Southern Flats, with potential for a higher-grade subzone elsewhere within the target area. Bornite mineralization below the leach cap in 26-01 suggests that this style of mineralization may be present in Southern Flats.
• Shallowing potential: Three-dimensional modelling suggests the cover rocks thin to the south, toward the Pegasus target.

HER-26-01 encountered transitional phyllic to outer potassic alteration, hosting a unique style of porphyry copper mineralization grading:

• 287 metres of 0.58 per cent copper equivalent (0.43 per cent copper, 158 parts per million molybdenum, 4.0 grams per tonne silver and 0.03 gram per tonne gold);
• Including 66 metres of 0.80 per cent CuEq (0.61 per cent Cu, 89 ppm Mo, 11.3 g/t Ag and 0.04 g/t Au).

Unlike at the Leviathan centre, porphyry intrusions in HER-26-01 appear steeply dipping to subvertical. The hole ended in a lower-grade late-stage porphyry intrusion interpreted to be steeply dipping.

Both Southern Flats and Leviathan are interpreted to have been emplaced along a major regional fault structure. MT geophysics shows potential for the same copper porphyry mineralization to continue farther along the same structure, into the largely untested Pegasus target.

Geological mapping and drilling indicate that Southern Flats may be located within a downdropped fault block, resulting in increased cover thickness. However, 3-D modelling also indicates that cover thickness decreases again to the south, and mineralization may occur closer to surface within the Pegasus zone.

Continuing drilling has two rigs focused on the high-priority Leviathan copper porphyry system at 200-metre drill spacing. Leviathan's mineralization has currently been traced to over 1.35 kilometres in strike, up to 750 m in width, and approximately 500 m vertical extent. Mineralization remains open to the north and south and at depth. Assays are now pending for drill hole HER-26-04, while two in-progress drill holes, HER-26-05 and HER-26-06, are expanding Leviathan to the south, infilling a large, one-kilometre gap in drilling between Leviathan and Southern Flats.

An extensive higher-grade copper hypogene enrichment blanket, containing secondary bornite, occurs within the shallowest portions of the Leviathan system. Drilling will continue to prioritize expansion of this high-priority target at Leviathan.

Chris Paul, senior vice-president, exploration, for Hercules Metals, commented: "Modern systematic exploration has led to two significant porphyry copper discoveries at Hercules since 2023 and, importantly, has provided us with a repeatable methodology for identifying and vectoring toward new porphyry centres across the district. Our approach begins with district-scale MT surveys at progressively tighter spacing, followed by deep-penetrating IP surveys to refine discrete targets and, ultimately, drill vectoring toward the centres of new porphyry systems using well-established alteration zoning patterns within the Hercules project porphyry district.

"The Southern Flats discovery provides a proof of concept, which can now be applied at other high-priority targets on the property, including Hook and Pegasus. The first reconnaissance drill hole at the Hook target has already intersected key alteration and geological features consistent with the periphery of a porphyry system. With the anomaly beginning 100 metres from surface, Hook has emerged as our new highest-priority exploration target outside of Leviathan.

"To date, systematic exploration has only been applied to approximately 20 per cent of our 100,000-acre land position, leaving substantially more opportunities to continue identifying additional porphyry centres across the broader 73-kilometre Olympus copper belt while drilling at Leviathan continues to aggressively expand our flagship discovery on 200-metre centres."

Olympus option payment

The company has completed its second $2-million anniversary payment to Barrick Mining Corp. under the option agreement (see press release dated Aug. 18, 2025). This is the second of four payments made by Hercules to complete the ownership of a 73-kilometre belt of claims known as the Olympus project. Upon the final $2-million payment in 2028, the company will own over 100,000 acres in America's newest copper porphyry belt. At the company's election, the payment was made entirely in cash rather than common shares.

Sample analysis and quality assurance/quality control

All drill core samples were prepped at MSALABS in Elko, Nev., and analyzed at MSALABS in Langley, B.C., an ISO 17025- and ISO 9001-certified laboratory. Samples were dried and crushed to two millimetres, from which a 250-gram subsample split was then pulverized to 85 per cent passing a 75-micron sieve. Following preparation, assays were determined by the IMS-230 method. A 0.25-gram aliquot of the prepared pulp was digested in a four-acid solution consisting of hydrochloric, nitric, perchloric and hydrofluoric acids. Four-acid digest is a near-total digest and only the most highly resistant minerals are not dissolved. The resulting solution was analyzed by ICP-MS and ICP-ES for 48 elements and was corrected for interelement spectral interferences. Lower detection limits for this procedure are 0.01 ppm for silver, 0.5 ppm for lead, two ppm for zinc and 0.2 ppm for copper. Mercury is not reported due to volatilization in reaction with hydrofluoric acid and gold is not reported due to the small, 0.25-gram aliquot size being insufficient to overcome the nugget effect.

Samples with initial results beyond the upper detection limit of the IMS-230 method were analyzed by procedures ICF-6Ag, ICF-6Cu, ICF-6Pb and ICF-6Zn. The thresholds are 100 ppm for silver and greater than 1 per cent for copper, lead and zinc.

A 50-gram split from the crushed and pulverized samples is composited into larger 500-gram composite samples (consisting of 10 continuous samples) and analyzed for gold utilizing CPA-Au1 photon assay method. Certain material gold results from the composite samples are then selected for reanalysis, by individual sample, as a 30-gram fire assay (FAS-111 method). Gold assays below detection limit are treated as zero values for composite calculations.

MSALABS employs internal quality control standards, duplicates and blank samples at set frequencies.

Blind certified reference materials (CRMs) and blank samples were systematically inserted by the company into the sample stream and analyzed as part of the company's quality assurance/quality control protocol.

For further details regarding holes HER-25-25, HER-26-02 and HER 26-03, including applicable scientific and technical information and cautionary statements, see the company's press releases dated May 26, 2026, June 16, 2026, and Sept. 14, 2026, respectively.

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed, verified and approved for disclosure by Dillon Hume, PGeo, vice-president, exploration, for the company. Mr. Hume is a qualified person for Hercules Metals within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Hercules Metals Corp.

Hercules Metals is an exploration company focused on developing America's newest porphyry copper district in Idaho.

The 100-per-cent-owned Hercules project, located northwest of Cambridge, hosts the Leviathan porphyry copper system, one of the most important new discoveries in the country to date. The company is well positioned for growth through continued drilling, supported by a strategic investment from Barrick Mining Corp.

With the potential for significant scale, the company's management and board of directors aim to deliver value to shareholders through proven discovery success.

We seek Safe Harbor.