Mr. Gilbert Clark reports

MERIDIAN APPOINTS AUSENCO BRAZIL AS LEAD ENGINEER FOR THE CABACAL DEFINITIVE FEASIBILITY STUDY AND SIGNS LOI WITH AURUBIS AG

Meridian Mining U.K. Societas has appointed Ausenco do Brasil Engenharia Ltda. to undertake the definitive feasibility study for its advanced Cabacal gold-copper project, located in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Ausenco is an internationally respected engineering firm with extensive global and Brazilian experience in conducting feasibility studies on projects similar to the scale of Cabacal. On completion of the DFS, Meridian will be positioned to make a final investment decision on the Cabacal build in 2026.

Gilbert Clark, chief executive officer, commented: "Having completed the PEA and PFS on Cabacal, the latter delivering nearly $1-billion in NPV for Cabacal, I'm delighted to continue this long-term relationship with Ausenco by having them perform Cabacal's DFS. With Ausenco's A team on the DFS who are already familiar with Cabacal means that we can kick off the study immediately, progress it rapidly and, after its potential successful reporting, focus on the build.

"I'm very pleased to have established an important corporate relationship with Aurubis that will greatly help to grow the company from being a resource developer to a mining and exporting company. With the agreement, we can now start preparing the company to be compliant with the import regulations of Germany and the European Union, look to access strategic European equity and project financing facilities while maintaining our schedule to be Brazil's next near-term copper-gold-silver concentrate exporter."

Cabacal definitive feasibility study launch

Cabacal's prefeasibility study (effective date of March 10, 2025) delivered strong economic results with a base-case after-tax net present value discounted at 5 per cent of $984-million (U.S.) and 61.2-per-cent internal rate of return from a preproduction capital cost of $248-million (U.S.). This provides a strong platform from which to launch Cabacal's DFS, and it is expected that the core elements of the PFS will be further developed to the DFS level with minimal change.

An updated resource and mine plan will be produced using drill results obtained after the PFS database was cut off. This will include such recent highlighted drill results (1) as the following.

Cabacal's process flow sheet is expected to remain similar to that devised for the PFS with a moderately finer primary grind to be adopted.

Ausenco has developed a schedule to complete Cabacal's DFS and the time needed to generate the additional data required for the study's completion. This indicates that the study should be completed before the end of first half 2026. The company has advanced on complementary contracts related to the DFS with groups such as Brazil's GE21 which was part of the PFS success.

Aurubis letter of intent

Meridian and Aurubis -- a globally leading non-ferrous metal group -- have signed a non-binding letter of intent to initiate a long-term corporate relationship and technical exchange to optimize Cabacal's future high-quality copper-gold-silver sulphide concentrates. The parties will explore and exchange technical ideas to optimize future Cabacal clean high-grade copper concentrate, with payable gold and silver credits, as outlined in Cabacal's PFS, for Outotec flash smelter performance. Flash smelters are the most common type of copper smelters in Europe, where Aurubis operates two sites: Hamburg (Germany) and Zlatitsa-Pirdop (Bulgaria).

The parties will also work together to advance Meridian's future compliance to the European Union Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance. The result of this co-operation by the parties is that the company will be prepared for the future regulatory compliance to export Cabacal's copper concentrates to the third-largest market for copper concentrates, the European Union.

Strategic equity and project finance process

Meridian is actively engaging with international and domestic project finance banks and funds to advance the project financing process alongside the progress of the DFS. The LOI presents an opportunity to potentially access both debt and equity capital from German and other European government-backed institutions. This includes debt guarantees under the UFK untied loan guarantee scheme and equity from the KfW2-managed Raw Materials Fund. Meridian's management has over a decade of funds management and banking relationships with KfW. Such future arrangements would be associated with a copper concentrate offtake agreement of a proportion of Cabacal's production that would benefit a smelter group such as Aurubis or European manufacturers requiring copper units.

About Meridian Mining U.K. Societas

Meridian Mining is focused on:

• The development and exploration of the advanced-stage Cabacal volcanogenic massive sulphide gold-copper project;
• The initial resource definition at the second higher-grade VMS asset at Santa Helena as the first stage of the Cabacal hub development strategy;
• Regional-scale exploration of the Cabacal VMS belt to expand the Cabacal hub strategy; and
• Exploration in the Jauru and Araputanga greenstone belts (the above all located in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil).

The prefeasibility study technical report dated March 31, 2025, entitled: "Cabacal Gold-Copper Project NI 43-101 Technical Report and Pre-feasibility Study" outlines a base-case after-tax net present value discounted at 5 per cent of $984-million (U.S.) and a 61.2-per-cent internal rate of return from a preproduction capital cost of $248-million (U.S.), leading to capital repayment in 17 months (assuming a metal price scenario of $2,119 (U.S.) per ounce of gold, $4.16 (U.S.) per pound of copper and $26.89 (U.S.) per ounce of silver). Cabacal has a low all-in sustaining cost of $742 (U.S.) per ounce gold equivalent and a production profile of 141,000-ounce-gold-equivalent life of mine, driven by high metallurgical recovery, a low life-of-mine strip ratio of 2.3 to 1 and the low operating cost environment of Brazil.

The Cabacal mineral reserve estimate consists of proven and probable reserves of 41.7 million tonnes at 0.63 gram per tonne gold, 0.44 per cent copper and 1.64 g/t silver (at a 0.25 g/t gold equivalent cut-off grade).

Readers are encouraged to read the PFS technical report in its entirety. The PFS technical report may be found under the company's profile on SEDAR+ and on the company's website.

The PFS technical report was prepared for the company by Tommaso Roberto Raponi (PEng), principal metallurgist with Ausenco Engineering Canada ULC; Scott Elfen (PE), global lead geotechnical and civil services with Ausenco Engineering Canada ULC; John Anthony McCartney, CGeol, Ausenco Chile Ltda.; Porfirio Cabaleiro Rodriguez (engineer geologist, FAIG), of GE21 Consultoria Mineral; Leonardo Soares (PGeo, MAIG), senior geological consultant of GE21 Consultoria Mineral; Norman lotter (mineral processing engineer, PEng), of Flowsheets Metallurgical Consulting Inc.; and Juliano Felix de Lima (engineer geologist, MAIG), of GE21 Consultoria Mineral.

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