Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2026) - Gladiator Metals Corp. (TSXV: GLAD) (OTCQB: GDTRF) (FSE: ZX7) ("Gladiator" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received a Class 3 Quartz Exploration Permit from the Government of Yukon for its Whitehorse Copper Project (the "Project").

SUMMARY

• Class 3 Quartz Exploration Permit received from the Government of Yukon for the Whitehorse Copper Project. 

• Class 3 granted following a positive recommendation from the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (“YESAB”) including positive consultation from Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.

• The 5-year term of the Class 3 Permit allows for rapid resource definition, resource expansion and new discoveries along the high-grade Whitehorse Copper Belt.

Gladiator CEO, Jason Bontempo, commented:

“We’re absolutely thrilled to have received the Class 3 permit after a positive and constructive YESAB assessment process. This authorisation empowers us to access high priority targets in the Whitehorse Copper Belt not previously accessible under the Class 1 permit and access for systematic drilling to rapidly deliver high grade copper resources inventories. Our heartfelt thanks go to the Government of Yukon, Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council for their support and engagement during this process.

We also sincerely thank the entire Whitehorse Community for their overwhelming support during the YESAB public consultation process and trusting Gladiator Metals to reveal the significant copper resource potential that lies within their Whitehorse Copper Belt.

The future is looking incredibly bright for Gladiator and the Whitehorse Copper Project which has the potential to be a multi-decade intergenerational project once again for the City of Whitehorse."

THE WHITEHORSE COPPER PROJECT

The Whitehorse Copper Project is an advanced-stage high grade copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), silver (Ag) and gold (Au) skarn exploration project in the Yukon Territory, Canada.

Copper mineralization was first discovered in 1897 on the Whitehorse Copper Belt and comprises over 30 copper-related, primarily skarn occurrences covering an area of 35 km long by 5 km wide on the western margin of Whitehorse City, Yukon.

Exploration and mining development have been carried out intermittently since 1897 with the main production era lasting between 1967 and 1982 where production from primarily the Little Chief deposit totalled 267,500,000 pounds copper, 225,000 ounces of gold and 2,838,000 ounces of silver from 10.5 million tons of mineralized material milled (Watson, 1984). The Whitehorse Copper Project is accessible by numerous access roads and trails located within 2 km of the South Klondike Highway and the Alaska Highway. An extensive network of historical gravel exploration and haul roads exists throughout the project area, providing excellent access to the claim package. Access to existing electric power facilities is available through the main Yukon power grid.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• Advanced 35 km long high-grade copper belt.
• Located on western margin of infrastructure rich Whitehorse City, Yukon.
• Greater than 40,000 m of drilling planned for 2026, focussed initially on near-term high-grade copper skarn resources prospects including the cornerstone Cowley Prospect, the recently discovered Cub East Prospect and the significant exploration potential surrounding the Cowley and Cub East mineralized systems.
• Later in the year focus will revert to the known mineralized areas adjacent to previous operating mines, including the Chiefs and Arctic Chief-Best Chance trends.
• Targeting to report maiden high-grade copper NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource(s), in 2026 for Cowley on completion of Class 3 delineation drilling.
• The Project area was a previous producer at Little Chief, Arctic Chief, Keewenaw & Black Cub South and other deposits.
• Between 1967-82 Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting, mined 10.5 mt at 1.5% Cu plus 0.75 g/t Au (Watson P.H. (1984) The Whitehorse Copper Belt - A Compilation. Yukon Geological Survey, Open File 1984-1).
• Key Institutional Investors - Dynamic, Mackenzie, Macquarie Bank and Orimco.

References:

Watson P.H. (1984) The Whitehorse Copper Belt - A Compilation. Yukon Geological Survey, Open File 1984-1. (https://data.geology.gov.yk.ca/Reference/42011#InfoTab)

Tenney D. (1981) - The Whitehorse Copper Belt: Mining, Exploration and Geology (1967-1980). (https://ia800206.us.archive.org/20/items/whitehorsecopper00tenn/whitehorsecopper00tenn.pdf)

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This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Certain of the statements and information in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information". Any statements or information that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "estimates", "intends", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) that are not statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information.

Forward-looking statements or information are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information, including, without limitation, the need for additional capital by the Company through financings, and the risk that such funds may not be raised; the speculative nature of exploration and the stages of the Company's properties; the effect of changes in commodity prices; regulatory risks that development of the Company's material properties will not be acceptable for social, environmental or other reasons; availability of equipment (including drills) and personnel to carry out work programs; and that each stage of work will be completed within expected time frames. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements or information. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

The Company's forward-looking statements and information are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date of this news release, and other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements and information if circumstances or management's assumptions, beliefs, expectations or opinions should change, or changes in any other events affecting such statements or information.

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