Mr. Troy Nazarewicz reports

FORTUNE MINERALS RETAINS P&E MINING CONSULTANTS INC. TO PREPARE THE NEW RESERVE ESTIMATES, MINE PLAN & PRODUCTION SCHEDULE FOR THE UPDATED NICO PROJECT FEASIBILITY STUDY

Fortune Minerals Ltd. has retained P&E Mining Consultants Inc. to prepare the new mineral reserve estimates, mine plan and production schedule for the updated Nico project feasibility study currently in preparation by Worley Canada Services Ltd. and other engineering companies. The Nico cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper critical minerals project comprises a planned open-pit and underground mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories, and a dedicated hydrometallurgical facility in Lamont county, Alberta, where concentrates from the mine and other feed sources will be processed to value-added products. The new mineral reserves and project economics are expected to materially benefit from higher metal prices, particularly gold and bismuth.

The new mineral reserve estimates will be based on updated costs, metal recoveries and prices, and currency exchange rates. The new mine plan and production schedule will be based on the updated mineral reserves and will also incorporate optimizations identified earlier by the company, including reverting to the 4,650-tonne-of-ore-per-day mill throughput rate used in the 2014 feasibility study, a larger contribution of gold-rich, higher-margin ores from underground mining during early years of the mine life and a stockpiling strategy that defers processing low-margin ores until later in the mine life. The Nico deposit is an IOCG-type (iron ore, copper and gold) mineral deposit containing three critical minerals (cobalt, bismuth and copper), and more than one million ounces of in-situ gold as a highly liquid and countercyclical co-product to mitigate critical mineral price volatility.

The economics for the Nico project were previously assessed in a 2014 feasibility study by Micon International Ltd., which will also prepare the technical report for the new feasibility study. The previous 2014 feasibility study identified mineral reserves totalling 33.1 million tonnes containing 1.1 million ounces of gold, 82.3 million pounds of cobalt, 102.1 million pounds of bismuth and 27.2 million pounds of copper, supporting a 20-year mine life. That study used base case metal prices of $1,350 (U.S.) per ounce of gold, $16 (U.S.) per pound of cobalt in cathode ($19.04 (U.S.) per pound of cobalt in sulphate), $10 (U.S.) per pound of bismuth in ingots and $2.38 (U.S.) per pound of copper in cement at a currency exchange rate of $1 (Canadian) to 88 U.S. cents. While the base case commodity price assumptions for the updated feasibility study have not been determined at this time, current prices are approximately $4,000 (U.S.) per ounce of gold, $22 (U.S.) per pound of cobalt, $17 (U.S.) per pound of bismuth and $5 (U.S.) per pound of copper at a currency exchange rate of $1 (Canadian) to 71 U.S. cents. Current commodity prices and the lower Canadian dollar will support significantly higher revenues to mitigate capital cost escalation.

For more detailed information about the Nico mineral reserves and certain technical information in this news release, please refer to the technical report on the Nico project, entitled "Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for the Nico Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper Project, Northwest Territories, Canada," dated April 2, 2014, and prepared by Micon International, which has been filed on SEDAR+ under the company's profile.

Nico project critical minerals

Development of the vertically integrated Nico project will strengthen North American critical mineral supply chain resilience and security, a priority for Western governments that need to reduce their dependence on foreign entities of concern. Notably, JPMorgan Chase indicated in a recent company podcast that it was working with the Trump administration on critical mineral supplies that are essential to national security and economic resilience. JPMorgan Chase announced plans to hire additional bankers and invest up to $10-billion (U.S.) in critical mineral companies as part of a broader $1.5-trillion (U.S.) pledge. The Nico project will be a reliable producer of critical minerals in a Tier 1 jurisdiction with supply chain transparency and custody control of the contained metals from ores through to the production of value-added products needed for the energy transition, new technologies and defence.

The Nico project is the largest deposit of bismuth in the world, with 12 per cent of global reserves, and China currently controls 80 per cent of global mine production and 90 per cent of refined bismuth supply. Notably, China has placed restrictions on the export of bismuth to Western countries in retaliation for tariffs, and this, together with growing consumption, has caused prices to escalate from $6 (U.S.) to $17 (U.S.) per pound. The unique physical and chemical properties of bismuth are difficult to substitute with other metals in essential automotive, metallurgical, technology and defence applications.

Bismuth semiconductors are reportedly 10 times faster than silicon-based chips and the bismuth-oriented chip ecosystem is expected to pave the way for the next advancements in computing. According to Nikkei Asia, after China placed export restrictions on bismuth, technology companies building artificial intelligence (AI) data centres for Nvidia, Amazon and Google pressed for quick resolution of United States-China trade negotiations as stockpiles of bismuth soldering paste -- essential for high-speed, low-temperature electrical interconnects ran low. Manganese-bismuth magnets are resistant to demagnetization from heat and can replace rare earth elements in high performance magnets in high heat applications. In the nuclear industry, bismuth is used as a collector for plutonium in fuel reprocessing, it is a coolant in some reactor designs and it replaces lead in radiation shielding. The most significant demand growth for bismuth is as an environmentally safe and non-toxic replacement for lead in brass and solders used in potable drinking water systems, free machining steel and aluminum, glass, ceramic glazes, and ammunition. Bismuth-tin alloy is also used to make environmentally safe, permanent plugs to properly seal decommissioned oil and gas wells to prevent greenhouse gas leakage, blowouts and groundwater contamination.

Fortune plans to make cobalt sulphate heptahydrate at its Alberta hydrometallurgical facility used to make lithium-ion rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles, portable electronics and stationary energy storage cells. Cobalt is also used in aerospace alloys, cutting tools, cemented carbides, permanent magnets, catalysts and pigments. About 78 per cent of global cobalt supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and most of the mines there are controlled by Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Chinese SOEs also control 83 per cent of global refined cobalt supply and 93 per cent of cobalt chemical supply. Chinese cobalt producers have been pursuing a policy of overproduction to provide low-cost raw materials to their domestic battery manufacturers while also driving foreign competitors out of business. The DRC government has therefore imposed export quotas on the Chinese producers to prevent price manipulation and the cobalt price recently recovered to more than $20 (U.S.) per pound.

The Nico project contains a copper byproduct, but Fortune also owns a 100-per-cent interest in the Sue-Dianne satellite deposit, 25 kilometres north of Nico with 10 million tonnes of in-pit mineral resources, averaging 0.8 per cent copper as a future source of incremental mill feed to extend the life of the Nico concentrator.

For more detailed information on the Sue-Dianne deposit and its mineral resources, please refer to the technical report dated March, 2008, by Micon International, entitled "Technical Report on a Mineral Resource Estimate For The Sue-Dianne Deposit, Mazenod Lake Area, Northwest Territories, Canada," prepared by B. Terrence Hennessey, PGeo, and Eugene Puritch, PEng, the qualified persons for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101, a copy of which is available on SEDAR+ under the company's profile on SEDAR+.

The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this news release have been approved by Robin Goad, MSc, PGeo, president and chief executive officer of Fortune, and Alex Mezei, MSc, PEng, Fortune's chief metallurgist, who are qualified persons under National Instrument 43-101.

About Fortune Minerals Ltd.

Fortune is a Canadian mining company focused on developing the Nico cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project in the Northwest Territories and Alberta. Fortune also owns the satellite Sue-Dianne copper-silver-gold deposit, located 25 kilometres north of the Nico deposit, and is a potential future source of incremental feed to extend the life of the Nico concentrator.

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