Mr. David Atkinson reports

CORTINA UPDATE

Earthworks Industries Inc. is providing an update to explain recent procedural developments regarding the complaint filed by the company's wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Cortina Integrated Waste Management Inc. (CIWM), in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, challenging the order of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA), purporting to cancel the federally approved lease between CIWM and the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation of the Cortina Rancheria, California.

On Oct. 16, 2025, the parties entered a stipulation, which the court approved, providing that the hearing currently set for Oct. 27, 2025, is vacated, and that the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and federal defendant's and defendant-intervenor's cross-motions for summary judgment shall be taken under submission, which it now has been, subject to the power of the court to reopen the matter for further briefs or oral arguments or both, if the court deems them necessary.

The reasons for the stipulations are as follows:

At the end of the day on Sept. 30, 2025, the appropriations that have been funding the U. S. Department of Justice expired and appropriations to the department lapsed. The department does not know when funding will be restored by Congress. Absent an appropriation or continuing resolution, Department of Justice attorneys are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in limited circumstances, including "emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property." That exception is not deemed to include ordinary civil cases like ours.

Given the lapse in federal appropriations, and to reduce the burden, expense and uncertainty surrounding travel arrangements and scheduling under the circumstances, the parties entered the stipulation. The parties recognize that the court may reset the hearing for a future date if necessary and have requested that any such hearing be set for a date as soon as federal funding permits.

The company looks forward to a successful affirmation by the court of the validity and enforceability of the lease at Cortina.