Lion One Drills 3.3 m of 99.13 g/t Gold from 136.4 m DH Depth, and 1.2 m of 218.31 g/t Gold from 109.0 m DH Depth at Tuvatu Gold Mine in Fiji

14:00 Uhr  |  Newsfile

North Vancouver, December 17, 2025 - Lion One Metals Ltd. (TSXV: LIO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) ("Lion One" or the "Company") is pleased to report significant new high-grade gold results from 4,040.90 meters of underground infill and grade control drilling at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji ("Tuvatu").

The drilling was focused on the Zone 5 part of the mine and primarily targeted the down dip extension of the UR2 lode below levels 1084 and 1066, which are the lowest levels of the current mine development. Drilling was conducted from one near surface underground drill station on the 1135 level. The Company intersected high-grade mineralization in 17 out of 22 drillholes with two drill holes abandoned. Most of the high-grade drill intersects are located within 20 m to 60 m below level 1084. Due to the proximity of these drill results to existing workings, most of these drill intercepts are anticipated to be incorporated into the mine plan in the next three to twelve months.

The deepest high-grade interval (16.09 g/t gold over 1.0 m, TGC-0503) was intersected approximately 125 m below level 1084. This represents approximately 6 additional levels of mining and indicates a strong vertical continuity of the high-grade structures in this part of the deposit. The headline intercept of 99.13 g/t gold over 3.3 m includes two very high-grade sub-intervals of 459.05 g/t gold over 0.3 m and 338.00 g/t gold over 0.5 m, and is located approximately 60 m below level 1084. Previous drilling in this part of the deposit returned similar high grade results over narrow widths, such as 236.00 g/t gold over 0.4 m (see news release dated May 1, 2025).

Top New Drill Results:

• 99.13 g/t Au over 3.3 m (including 459.05 g/t Au over 0.3 m and 338.00 g/t over 0.5 m)
  (TGC-0454, from 136.4 m depth)
• 218.31 g/t Au over 1.2 m (including 366.00 g/t Au over 0.6 m) (TGC-0457, from 109 m depth)
• 24.86 g/t Au over 4.6 m (including 56.29 g/t Au over 0.5 m) (TGC-0482, from 133.92 m depth)

*Drill intersects are downhole lengths, 3.0 g/t cutoff. True width not known. See Table 1 for additional data.

Figure 1. Location of the Zone 5 drilling reported in this news release. Left image: Plan view of the Zone 5 drilling in relation to the mineralized lodes shown in grey, with Tuvatu underground development shown in red. Right image: Section view of the Zone 5 drilling looking West. The primary target for the Zone 5 drilling is are the down-dip extension of the Zone 5 lodes below current underground workings in the northern part of the deposit.

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Zone 5 Drilling

The Zone 5 area of Tuvatu is located on the east side of the deposit and includes the principal north-south and northeast-southwest oriented lodes. The drilling reported in this news release targeted the near-surface portion of the UR2 lode down-dip of current underground developments. The UR2 lode is one of the main north-south oriented lodes in Zone 5. It has a strike length of approximately 600 m and dips steeply to the east. Mine development is currently taking place along the UR2 lode both at the top of the mine, along levels 1150 and 1170, as well as at the bottom of the mine along levels 1084 and 1066/1068, which are the deepest levels in Zone 5. Level 1084 has over 300 m of development completed along strike, while Level 1066/1068 is under development.

The drilling was conducted from one underground drill station, the 1135 drill station, and targeted a panel of the UR2 lode approximately 125 m in strike length and 60 m in height, with a few drillholes targeting deeper sections of the lode. 17 of the drillholes intersected high-grade intercepts, most of which were 20 m to 60 m below level 1084, including the headline intercepts of 3.3 m of 99.13 g/t gold and 1.2 m of 218.31 g/t gold. The deepest high-grade intercept returned in this drill program was 16.09 g/t gold over 1.0 m, which was intersected 125 m below level 1084. This represents an additional 6 levels of mining and indicates strong vertical continuity the high-grade material. The two most northern drillholes of the program, TGC-0493 and TGC-0495, did not intersect significant mineralization. Additional drilling is warranted in this area.

The down-dip drill program returned numerous high-grade drill intersects over narrow widths, such as 459.05 g/t over 0.3 m, 366.00 g/t over 0.6 m, and 338.00 g/t over 0.5 m. These types of narrow intersects are typical at the Tuvatu deposit as the mineralized structures tend to be quite narrow. However, the structures also pinch and swell along strike and as a result there are some larger high-grade intervals that were also returned, such as 4.6 m of 24.86 g/t gold. The drillholes reported here were designed to intersect the mineralized lodes in a perpendicular to sub-perpendicular orientation such that the mineralized intervals approximate the true width of the mineralization. Highlights of the Zone 5 UR2 down-dip drill program included in this release are shown in Figure 2. Most of the high-grade intersects reported here are anticipated to be mined within the next 3 to 12 months.

Figure 2. Zone 5 down-dip drilling with high-grade intercepts highlighted, 3.0 g/t gold cutoff. Left image: Plan view looking down with high-grade intercepts highlighted. Right image: Section view looking West, showing the same high-grade intercepts. The drill holes shown here targeted the down-dip extension of the UR2 lode below current mine development in the north part of Zone 5. High-grade intercepts were returned up to 125 m below the 1084 level, with the headline intercept of 99.13 g/t gold located 60 m below the 1084 level. Tuvatu underground development shown in pale grey.

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Note on Composite Grades

The drill holes reported in this news release are oriented approximately perpendicular to mineralization. The reported intercepts therefore approximate the true width of mineralization. The minimum mining width at Tuvatu is approximately 1.5 m. In reporting drillhole intercepts Lion One uses a grade composite cut-off of 3 g/t gold with <1 m internal dilution at <3 g/t gold. Drill hole intervals that are <3 g/t gold are below cutoff and are not included in Table 2.

Competent Person's Statement

In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43- 101"), Melvyn Levrel, MAIG, Senior Geologist for Lion One Metals, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has reviewed and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release.

Lion One Laboratories / QAQC

Lion One adheres to rigorous QAQC procedures above and beyond basic regulatory guidelines in conducting its drilling, sampling, testing, and analyses. The Company operates its own geochemical assay laboratory and its own fleet of diamond drill rigs using PQ, HQ and NQ sized drill rods. The Lion One geochemical laboratory is accredited under the IANZ ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Standard - the international standard for testing and calibration of laboratories.

Diamond drill core samples are logged by Lion One personnel on site. Exploration diamond drill core is split by Lion One personnel on site, with half core samples sent for analysis and the other half core remaining on site. Grade control diamond drill core is whole core assayed. Core samples are delivered to the Lion One Laboratory for preparation and analysis. All samples are pulverized at the Lion One lab to 85% passing through 75 microns and gold analysis is carried out using fire assay with an AA finish. Samples that return grades greater than 10.00 g/t Au are re-analyzed by gravimetric method, which is considered more accurate for very high-grade samples.

Duplicates of 5% of samples with grades above 0.5 g/t Au are delivered to ALS Global Laboratories in Australia for check assay determinations using the same methods (Au-AA26 and Au-GRA22 where applicable). ALS also analyses 33 pathfinder elements by HF-HNO3-HClO4 acid digestion, HCl leach and ICP-AES (method ME-ICP61). The Lion One lab can test a range of up to 71 elements through Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), but currently focuses on a suite of 29 important pathfinder elements with an aqua regia digest and ICP-OES finish.

About Lion One Metals Limited

Lion One Metals is an emerging Canadian gold producer headquartered in North Vancouver BC, with new operations established in late 2023 at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji. The Tuvatu project comprises the high-grade Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Deposit, the Underground Gold Mine, the Pilot Plant, and the Assay Lab. The Company also has an extensive exploration license covering the entire Navilawa Caldera, which is host to multiple mineralized zones and highly prospective exploration targets.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Walter Berukoff, Chairman & President

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Service Provider accepts responsibility or the adequacy or accuracy of this release

This press release may contain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Lion One Metals Limited's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Lion One Metals Limited and on assumptions Lion One Metals Limited believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, the actual results of exploration projects being equivalent to or better than estimated results in technical reports, assessment reports, and other geological reports or prior exploration results. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of Lion One Metals Limited or its subsidiaries to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the stage development of Lion One Metals Limited, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current research and development or operational activities; competition; uncertainty as to patent applications and intellectual property rights; product liability and lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting mining, timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; not realizing on the potential benefits of technology; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labor or loss of key individuals. Although Lion One Metals Limited has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Lion One Metals Limited does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Appendix 1: Full Drill Results and Collar Information

Table 1. Collar coordinates for drillholes reported in this release. Coordinates are in Fiji map grid.

Table 2. Composite intervals from drillholes reported in this news release (composite grade >3.0 g/t Au, with <1 m internal dilution at <3.0 g/t Au). Intervals are colour coded based on grade.

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