Mr. Charles Funk reports

HELIOSTAR INTRODUCES GOLDSTRIKE PROJECT AND UPDATED MINERAL RESOURCE

Further to Heliostar Metals Ltd.'s March 23, 2026, press release, technical details of the company's planned acquisition of a 100-per-cent interest in the Goldstrike project located in Utah, United States, from Liberty Gold Corp.

Highlights

• Goldstrike contains an indicated mineral resource of 975,000 ounces of gold grading 0.46 gram per tonne;
• Initial purchase price of $10-million (U.S.) in cash plus $2.5-million (U.S.) in Heliostar shares on closing, plus additional milestone payments totalling $60-million (U.S.) in cash over a maximum of five years;
• Historic past producer with infrastructure including road access, proximity to a population center and a powerline within eight kilometres of the property;
• Outcropping, undrilled, high-grade antimony samples and historic antimony production provide critical mineral potential.

Heliostar chief executive officer Charles Funk commented: "Goldstrike represents an excellent opportunity to acquire an approximately one-million-ounce gold deposit on attractive terms and provides diversification for Heliostar into another premier mining jurisdiction in North America. The deposit is a Carlin-style gold system, with a significant mineralized footprint that has potential to expand, with 96 per cent of drill testing less than 200 m deep. Goldstrike has a large amount of high-quality work already completed, including metallurgy, geologic modelling, permitting progress and the identification of water sources, which can support an accelerated development timeline. It also has attractive antimony results that provide critical mineral upside that Heliostar plans to test. Upon completion of this transaction, Heliostar intends to review corporate opportunities for its portfolio of American properties."

Project details

The Goldstrike project is located in the Bull Valley Mountains in Washington county, approximately 50 kilometres northwest of St. George in southwestern Utah, United States. The property is made up of a central block of patented claims that are surrounded by a contiguous block of unpatented claims and land leased from the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. The property area totals 5,173 hectares and is accessible year-round via paved and all-weather roads.

Open-pit mining and cyanide heap-leach processing took place on site from 1988 to 1996. A total of approximately 209,000 ounces of gold and 198,000 ounces of silver were produced during these operations from approximately eight million tons (7.26 million tonnes) of ore mined from 11 open pits.

Drilling at the project includes 1,389 holes (87,020 metres) drilled by historical operators and 2,375 holes for 217,394 m drilled by Liberty from late 2015 through 2022. The data includes 77 core holes and 23 sonic holes, with the remainder being reverse circulation (RC) holes.

Geology

Mineralization at Goldstrike occurs as a Carlin-style deposit at the eastern edge of the Basin and Range province. The mineralization is hosted primarily in conglomerate and limestone of the basal Claron formation of Tertiary age, as well as underlying Paleozoic units. The principal controls on mineralization include the generally shallow-dipping unconformity at the base of the Claron formation, which is extensively mineralized, and high-angle structures of various orientations that appear to be the conduits through which mineralizing fluids circulated. These structural zones can also lead to significant mineralization in the Paleozoic silty limestone of the Pennsylvanian Callville Limestone and Mississippian Redwall Limestone, important hosts of mineralization.

Metallurgy

The Goldstrike oxide resources appear to be readily amenable to a mix of coarse crush/agglomeration and run-of-mine conventional heap leaching practice. Cyanide and lime consumptions are low to moderate, with low quantities of deleterious elements such as copper, zinc, mercury and nickel, unlikely to materially impact cyanide consumption. The estimated amount of power required for crushing is low to moderate, with the abrasion wear characteristics representing minimal risk. Oxide gold recoveries are generally considered to be good to excellent, depending upon resource location, cyanide solubility and particle size.

Antimony potential

The property package on which the Goldstrike project sits also includes the Antimony Ridge prospect. This is an area along trend to the east of the Goldstrike deposit with historical antimony production and modern sampling showing potential for widespread antimony mineralization. Historical records indicate small-scale production of 10 tons of antimony ore in the 1970s from the Lejaiv Unite mine from two small open pits located on Antimony Ridge. The mineralization at Antimony Ridge occurs as exceptionally large, bladed to massive stibiconite in a jasperoid breccia with gold. Stibiconite is an antimony oxide formed from the in-situ oxidation of stibnite, the primary antimony sulphide mineral present at Antimony Ridge. Rock sampling over 450 metres of strike length has returned values including 5.7 per cent antimony with 0.05 gram per tonne (g/t) gold, 5.1 per cent antimony with 0.13 g/t gold and 2.95 per cent antimony with 1.23 g/t gold.

Heliostar intends to continue the prospecting work at the Antimony Ridge area to better define the area's prospectivity for both antimony and gold mineralization. Three drill sites around the historic mine are permitted with drill-ready targets.

Transaction details

Heliostar, through its whole owned subsidiary Helio Five Resources Ltd., has entered into an arm's-length agreement dated March 20, 2026, to purchase Specialty American Metals Inc., a wholly owned British Columbia subsidiary of Liberty, which is the sole owner of Pilot Goldstrike Inc., a Nevada company which holds the Goldstrike project.

Consideration to Liberty consists of $72.5-million (U.S.), which comprises:

• $10-million (U.S.) in cash plus 1,593,213 Heliostar shares (having an aggregate value of $2.5-million) paid and issued on the closing date;
• $10-million (U.S.) in cash on the 12-month anniversary of the closing date;
• $10-million (U.S.) in cash on the 18-month anniversary of the closing date;
• $15-million (U.S.) in cash on the earlier of the achievement of certain infrastructure-related milestones or five years from the closing date;
• $25-million (U.S.) in cash on the earliest of completion of a feasibility study, a formal construction decision or the five-year anniversary of the closing date.

The transaction is subject to the receipt of applicable regulatory and exchange approvals (including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange), and the satisfaction of certain other closing conditions customary for a transaction of this nature. No finders' fees are payable on the transaction. Subject to the satisfaction of such conditions, the transaction is expected to close in April, 2026. All Heliostar shares issued in connection with the acquisition will be subject to a four-month-and-one-day hold period from the closing date in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Path forward

Heliostar will publish an updated technical report within 45 days of the date of this press release to support the updated mineral resource described herein. The company will evaluate potential strategic options for the Goldstrike project, including sequencing development within the company's existing growth project pipeline and use of special purpose vehicles to separate gold and critical minerals value streams. Future development work will focus on resource expansion and confirming the processing and infrastructure plans.

Qualified persons

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release relating to the Gold Strike mineral resource estimate and the associated National Instrument 43-101 technical report has been reviewed and approved by Lorraine Tam, PGeo of SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd., and Gary L. Simmons, MMSA, each of whom is a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Ms. Tam and Mr. Simmons are independent of the company with respect to the Goldstrike project.

The mineral resource estimate disclosed in this news release is based on a technical report being prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, with an effective date of March 23, 2026.

About Heliostar Metals Ltd.

Heliostar is a growing gold mining company with production from operating mines in Mexico, with the objective of being a mid-tier producer with 500,000 ounces of annual gold production by the end of the decade. The company's operating mines are La Colorada in Sonora and San Agustin in Durango. Heliostar also has a strong portfolio of development projects in Mexico and the United States, including its flagship Ana Paula project in Guerrero, the Cerro del Gallo project in Guanajuato, the San Antonio project in Baja Sur and the Unga project in Alaska, United States.

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