CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE – SEPTEMBER 2026 TO OCTOBER 6th, 2026
Dear Shareholders and Interested Parties,
September and thus far in October has marked an important transition for MetalQuest from field work to laboratory work at our Lac Otelnuk Iron Project, where legacy drill core is now in COREM’s hands and a 26-week metallurgical program is underway. We have also put boots on the ground at our West & East Cameron Gold Project in the Kenora Mining District and are finalizing a geophysical program for our Fishhook Polymetallic Project in the Ring of Fire and the Superior Iron project. In late September work started on Superior Iron, and we are currently conducting an AMAG/RAD survey over the project and plan to have it completed by mid October. Below is a summary of our key activities since our last update.
Lac Otelnuk Iron Project – COREM Metallurgical Program Underway
On September 2, 2026, we reported the completion of our second field and core-retrieval program at Lac Otelnuk and Superior Iron, carried out August 3–5, 2026 alongside John Langton, M.Sc., P.Geo., of JPL GeoServices Inc., our independent consultant and Qualified Person for the projects. Our team extracted 345 metres of core from five historical drill holes, and approximately 550 kg of material was delivered to COREM in Québec City. John played an integral role in compiling the drilling database behind the historic 2015 Feasibility Study and having him on site made selecting the right legacy core far more efficient.
Figure 1: Aerial drone image of the legacy Lac Otelnuk Camp (June 2026).
Figure 2: Map illustrating Lac Otelnuk Iron Project claims in blue and Superior Iron Project claims in yellow.
The objective of the COREM program is to produce a high-purity iron concentrate grading below 1.5% to 2.0% silica (SiO₂), and to develop a flowsheet for Direct Reduction (DR)-grade pellets suited to modern Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking. The 26-week program includes:
• Sample reception, preparation and characterization
• Pilot plant production runs (cobber/rougher and cleaner stages)
• Flotation test work and optimization
• Pelletizing and advanced metallurgical testing
This work follows the staged path forward recommended in AtkinsRéalis’ 2025 Gap Analysis. It lets us put the approximately $120 million of historical investment in Lac Otelnuk to work on our path toward an updated feasibility study. (See Press Release)
Figure 3: Our team loading the collected core for transport via seaplane to COREM for metallurgical testing (August 2026).
Superior Iron Project
During both 2026 site visits, our field teams completed geological traverses across the boundary between Lac Otelnuk and our 27,425-hectare Superior Iron Project, verifying the regional Sokoman Formation iron units in outcrop and refining targets for airborne geophysics. The 2026 AMAG/RAD survey is in progress, and we have commissioned John Langton to complete a 43-101 style report on Superior Iron, covering the project’s exploration and geological history, work to date and a go-forward exploration plan. We expect the report to be completed before the end of 2026.
West & East Cameron Gold Project – Kenora Mining District
Field work has commenced at our 100%-owned West & East Cameron Gold Project, located approximately 10 km south of Sioux Narrows and 60 km south of Kenora, along the same structural corridor as Seva Mining’s Cameron Gold Deposit. The program is being carried out by Clark Exploration of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and includes:
• B-Horizon Soil Geochemistry Survey: a systematic 595-sample survey across West Cameron, scheduled for completion before the end of October 2026
• Prospecting and Rock Sampling: revisiting historical anomalous sample sites and prospecting the surrounding areas to identify additional mineralization
• East Cameron: mapping and sampling to confirm historical data, along with detailed structural mapping
Together, this work will give us a property-wide dataset to prioritize the most compelling targets and allows us to work towards a 2027 drill program. We look forward to reporting results as the season progresses.
Figure 4: Location of the West (orange) & East (blue) Cameron Gold Project near Sioux Narrows, Kenora Mining District, Northwestern Ontario. Seva Mining’s Cameron Gold Deposit is located adjacent to the Projects along a common all-weather access road.
Ring of Fire – Fishhook Polymetallic Project
An extensive geophysical program has been flown on our Fishhook Polymetallic Project, a district-scale critical metals project in Ontario’s Ring of Fire. The program is expected to be completed before the end of October 2026, and further announcements and reports will follow before year end.
Ontario’s accelerated Ring of Fire Road plan was announced at PDAC March 2026. The Webequie Supply Road began construction in June 2026, and the Marten Falls Community Access Road began construction in September 2026 and both have a planned opening by November 2030.
Figure 5: Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Murray Brook – Shares, Warrants and Royalties
As a reminder, MetalQuest holds approximately ~1.7 million free-trading shares and 1.5 million warrants at a strike price of $0.125 in Canadian Copper Inc. (CSE: CCI), operator of the Murray Brook Zinc-Polymetallic Project in New Brunswick’s Bathurst Mining District. As of the close of trading on September 28th, 2026, CCI shares were trading at $0.72. We also hold two NSR royalties totalling 1% on Murray Brook, and CCI must pay MetalQuest a $1 million pre-production cash payment before the project goes into production. CCI has Murray Brook on a rapid path back to production. Go to https://canadiancopper.com/ for more information.
Going Forward
Our priorities for the fall are advancing the COREM metallurgical program at Lac Otelnuk, finalizing geophysical plans and the 43-101 style report for Superior Iron, completing the Fishhook geophysical program, and completing this season’s soil survey and prospecting at West & East Cameron. We will keep shareholders updated as each milestone progresses through press releases and Chairman’s Messages.
We encourage interested parties to set up a meeting with management by emailing info@mqmining.com or calling +1 613 659 2773. We encourage you to share these developments with fellow investors and invite them to subscribe to our mailing list for regular updates on MetalQuest Mining’s progress.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and Management, thank you for your continued support and trust in MetalQuest Mining.
Sincerely,
Harry G. Barr
Chairman and CEO
MetalQuest Mining Inc. (TSXV: MQM | OTCQB: MQMIF)
Email: Hbarr@mqmining.com
Phone: +1 613 659 2773