Trekor Updates Status of Aley Niobium and Strengthens Project Team

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Trekor Metals Limited (TSX: TKO; NYSE American: TGB; LSE: TKO) (“Trekor” or the “Company”) is pleased to provide an update on the Company’s wholly-owned Aley niobium project, an advanced-stage development project located in northeastern British Columbia, Canada.

Over the past several years, the Aley Project team has continued development of a proprietary flotation process, resulting in higher niobium recoveries and reduced reagent consumption. The concentrate produced with this process has been used to successfully produce market grade ferroniobium, a critical input for specialty steel production. The team is also evaluating opportunities to use the concentrate to produce high purity niobium oxide directly, or by utilizing a third-party processor. In connection with this work, the Company has appointed Steve Sparkowich as Director, Aley Niobium, to support technical development, market positioning and commercial strategy for the project.

Stuart McDonald, President & CEO of Trekor, commented, “Our technical team has done a great job improving Aley’s process flowsheet in recent years. We believe Aley has the potential to be a major new source of niobium, a designated critical mineral in Canada, the United States and Europe, and we look forward to advancing commercial and strategic discussions with niobium consumers seeking a reliable North American supply chain.”

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Based on a previously issued National Instrument 43-101 technical report, the Aley Project contains an estimated 84 million tonnes of proven and probable mineral reserves grading 0.50% Nb 2 O 5 . With a processing rate of 10,000 tonnes per day, the mine would have a production capacity of 14,000 tonnes of ferroniobium (nine million kilograms of contained niobium) per year over a 24 year mine life.

A significant amount of development work has been completed on the project since the last technical report. A focus of this technical work has been a refinement of the process flowsheet which has undergone a pilot test program using material from a metallurgical sample taken in 2018. The test program has confirmed the operability of a new, optimized flotation process that has yielded higher niobium recoveries and improved concentrate grades with much reduced reagent consumption.

The test program generated enough niobium concentrate to complete the development of a two-stage smelting process which has successfully produced marketable ferroniobium. The proprietary flotation process has been patented by Trekor in the United States, Australia, Brazil and in Europe. The project team is also developing a hydrometallurgical flowsheet that would produce niobium oxide from Aley’s flotation concentrate.

The project team is now scaling up the pilot program to produce additional quantities of ferroniobium, with the focus shifting towards product marketing initiatives and engagement with potential offtake parties and processors.

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