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Chairman’s Message – July & August 2026
Dear Shareholders and Interested Parties,
July & August have been some of our most active months of the year to date, with our technical and field teams advancing work simultaneously across our flagship Lac Otelnuk Iron and Superior Iron Project in Québec, our growing Ring of Fire critical minerals footprint in Ontario, and our newest addition, the MQM Gold Division which includes the East and West Cameron Gold Projects in the Kenora Mining District. Below is a summary of our key activities since our last update.
Lac Otelnuk/Superior Iron Project
From August 3rd to 6th, our team completed our second site visit of 2026 to the 100%-owned Lac Otelnuk and Superior Iron Projects, located in Québec’s Labrador Trough approximately 165 km northwest of Schefferville, building directly on the reconnaissance program we completed in June. In regards to the Lac Otelnuk our second trip to the projects moved us from technical review into direct action: our crews collected over 600 kilograms of historical drill core sample material from the legacy Lac Otelnuk camp and transported it to COREM, our Québec City-based mineral processing partner, to begin metallurgical testwork. This work, conducted in collaboration with COREM and AtkinsRéalis, is a key step on our pathway back toward an updated feasibility study, allowing us to put nearly $120 million of historical exploration investment to immediate use rather than starting from scratch. The main objective of this metallurgical test is to improve getting real core material off the shelf at Lac Otelnuk and into COREM’s hands for metallurgical testing is exactly the kind of tangible, de-risking progress we know our shareholders want to see on our path back to feasibility, and we look forward to reporting results from COREM’s testwork program as they become available in our next Lac Otelnuk Iron Project press release. The main objective of the OREM metallurgical program are as follows:
– Produce iron ore concentrate from drill core samples for flotation test work
– Evaluate the performance of reverse flotation to produce DR concentrate grading of < 1.5% to 2.0% SiO2
– Characterize the ore amenability to produce DR-grade pellets at lab scale
– Approximately twenty-six (26) weeks will be required to complete the project.
MetalQuest’s technical team continues to evaluate proposed work programs for both the Lac Otelnuk Iron and Superior Iron projects. These activities would include continued technical validation and verification, infrastructure studies, logistics planning and the continued updating of project development studies referenced by AtkinsRéalis’ recently completed GAP study (AtkinsRéalis, 2025). Our summer will be encompassed in a new 43-101 style report and go-forward plan for the Superior Iron Project. We expect that report to be completed before the end of November 2026
Figure 1: Aerial image showcasing the organized core sample boxes left after the extensive diamond drilling campaigns between 2007 and 2011.
Figure 2: Our team loading up the collected core to handover via seaplane to COREM for metallurgical testing.
Figure 3: A total of 12 pails were loaded into a truck and transported from Montreal Metropolitan Airport to COREM’s research facility in Quebec City
Ring of Fire – Fishhook Polymetallic Project
In Ontario’s Ring of Fire, we are now organizing a new geophysical survey program over our Fishhook Polymetallic Project, our 28,000-hectare district-scale land package targeting VMS and nickel-copper-PGM mineralization. This approximately $400,000 program is intended to build directly on the historical airborne VTEM and magnetic surveys already compiled on the property, helping our technical team refine and prioritize the numerous untested electromagnetic conductors identified to date. Combined with our ongoing work at the adjacent ROF-1 Project, this geophysical program is an important next step in generating a pipeline of drill-ready targets across our Ring of Fire portfolio. The program is scheduled to be finalized by the end of September 2026. From there we have commissioned a 43-101 style geological report outlining the highlights of the geophysical study and suggesting a go forward plan for the project. The timing for that report will be before the end of November 2026
Figure 4: The Fishhook Polymetallic Project and ROF-1 Project complements the recent acquisition of the Northern Shield Project part of the Fishtrap Lake Intrusive Complex by MQM’s significant shareholder New Age Metals (NAM) and reflects growing industry interest in district-scale critical metals opportunities within the Ring of Fire. New Age Metals’ activities are independent of MetalQuest’s operations. (See Press Release)
East Cameron & West Cameron Gold Project – Kenora Mining District
At our West Cameron Gold Project, located in the Kenora Mining District of northwestern Ontario along the same structural corridor that hosts the Cameron Lake Gold Deposit, we now have boots on the ground. Field crews are actively advancing our 2026 exploration program, which includes geological mapping, prospecting, and sampling designed to validate and expand on historical showings, including grab samples that returned gold values up to 9.18 g/t Au. This work will help guide geophysical survey planning and target definition as we work toward our goal of completing this phase of the program before the end of October 2026. It has been an outstanding stretch of execution for MetalQuest, advancing tangible work across all three of these projects in parallel, and we look forward to keeping shareholders updated as each milestone progresses.
Figure 5: Location of the East (Red Circle) and West (Purple Circle) Cameron Gold Projects near Sioux Narrows, Northwestern Ontario, Kenora Mining District, adjacent to the Cameron Lake Property. First Mining’s Cameron Lake Gold Deposit is located approximately 10 km from the project along an all-weather access road from both projects. Frank Giustra’s Fiore Group and First Mining Gold Corp. are in a transaction valued at approximately CAD $27 million for the Cameron Gold Deposit.
Murray Brook Royalty – Ventum Financial Initiating Coverage
On August 4, 2026, Ventum Financial Corp. initiated equity research coverage on Canadian Copper Inc. (CSE: CCI), operator of the Murray Brook Zinc-Copper-Lead-Silver Project in New Brunswick’s Bathurst Mining Camp, with a BUY rating and a C$1.00 per share target price, representing 56% upside to Canadian Copper’s share price at the time of publication. As shareholders will recall, MetalQuest retains a 1.0% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on Murray Brook, carried forward from our 2024 sale of our minority interest in the project to Canadian Copper. Ventum’s model forecasts a 16-year mine life commencing in 2029, with average annual project revenue of approximately $180.3 million. The current assets related to this project that are owned 100% by MQM are as follows:
– Approximately 700,000 free-trading shares
– A combined 1% royalty for the life of the project
– 2.5 million warrants at a strike price of $0.125 (current price of CCI stock is valued at $0.68)
– A $1 million preproduction royalty payment (must be paid to MQM before the product goes into production).
Management plans to give shareholders and interested parties a more robust overview of our assets related to the Murray Brook project in the coming weeks.
Going Forward
Our priorities for the remainder of the summer and into the fall remain focused on delivering the COREM metallurgical results for Lac Otelnuk, finalizing our go-forward plan for Superior Iron. Early this fall we will be launching the new Fishhook geophysical program, and continuing to build out our exploration program at East Cameron & West Cameron. We will keep shareholders updated as each of these milestones progresses by way of 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.
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. (TSX.V: MQM | OTCQB: MQMIF)
Field Office: 59 Burtch’s Lane, Rockport, ON, Canada, K0E 1V0
Email: Hbarr@mqmining.com
Phone: +1 613 659 2773
www.metalquestmining.com