Kootenay Silver Inc. (TSX-V: KTN) (OTCQX: KOOYF) is pleased to announce assay results from the first seven holes of the ongoing staged 50,000-meter drill program at Columba High Grade Silver Project, located in Chihuahua, Mexico.  Drilling at the project is designed to extend and expand known mineralization on the extensive Columba vein system, which currently hosts an inferred Mineral Resource Estimate totaling 54.1 Moz of silver at a grade of 284 gpt (see News Release June 17, 2025).

The current phase of drilling commenced in September 2025 with five holes testing extensions of the lightly tested I Vein trend before moving on to expand the D Vein and B Vein trends.

This release documents highlights from the first seven holes of the current program with five I Vein holes and two D Vein holes. So far, seventeen holes are completed with ten holes still awaiting assay results. The Company is experiencing much longer than usual wait times for results due to increased laboratory turn-around times.

Highlights of the first seven holes include:

• Discovery of porphyry style gold mineralization along I Vein hosted in breccias and feldspar porphyry in CDH-25-217 and 218. Classic B style veins plus or minus molybdenite along with disseminated pyrite and unidirectional solidification textures type veining, a style of crystal growth, indicative of porphyry style mineralization. See photos here.
  
  I Vein Trend (View I Vein Long Section),
  
  
• CDH-25-217
  • Two gold intervals over significant widths.
  • The first is 101 meters of 0.18 gpt gold and 10 gpt silver includes 6 meters of 0.85 gpt gold and 11 gpt silver.
  • The second is 26.5 meters of 0.2 gpt gold.
• And a separate silver intercept of 73 gpt silver and 0.1 % lead and 0.2% zinc over 7 meters
• CDH-25-218
  • Three gold intervals over significant widths.
  • The first is 27 meters of 0.22 gpt gold and 28 gpt silver.
    • Includes 0.55 meters of 847 gpt silver, 0.18 gpt gold, 0.4% lead and 0.3% zinc.
  • The second is 12 meters of 0.21 gpt gold and 32 gpt silver.
  • The third is 16 meters of 0.32 gpt gold and 26 gpt silver.
• And a high grade silver interval. See photos here.
  • 3.97 meters of 303 gpt silver and 2.8% Pb+Zn with 0.71 meters of 921 gpt silver, 0.12 gpt gold and 6.8% Pb+Zn.

D Vein intercepts (View D Vein Long Section),

• CDH-25-214
  • 10.50 meters of 108 gpt silver and 0.1% lead and 0.2% zinc
    • Includes 1.50 meters of 362 gpt silver and 0.1 % lead and 0.2% zinc.
• CDH-25-216
  • 3.2 meters grading 212 gpt silver and 0.2% lead and 0.6 % zinc.
    • Includes 0.7 meters of 756 gpt silver 0.6% lead and 2.5% zinc.

Drilling continues with two drills as Kootenay works to expand accommodation and core storage capacity at Columba; upon completion the Company intends to increase the number of drill rigs at the project.

Kootenay’s President & CEO, James McDonald states,

“Exploration at Columba continues to produce pleasant surprises. We are now seeing a gold mineralizing event with gold-moly porphyry characteristics. The zone is strongly anomalous in gold and may indicate a different deposit type exists. The two holes are 95 meters apart and associated with nearby magnetic highs, which may indicate the intrusive source of the gold. More drilling will be done to assess this new target.”

Dale Brittliffe VP Exploration adds,

“The anomalous gold zones we are seeing along the I Vein trend are testament to the complexity and thereby potential of the Columba mineral camp. While we are focused on the silver rich veins to systematically extend and expand the existing silver resource with this current drilling program, we will now also be evaluating this new and exciting gold target.”

Drill results, CDH-25-212 to 218

The I Vein target tested with holes CDH-25-212, 213, 215, 217 and 218 is a northeast trending vein extending from its intersection with the northwest trending F Vein.

The current I Vein holes are located between 250m and 600m northeast of the F Vein, in an area where mapping at surface identified a weakly silver mineralized breccia known locally as “brecha negra”.  Of note in these holes, especially CDH-25-217 and CDH-25-218 encountered the quartz calcite +/- barite veining with silver typical of the Columba project, but also encountered extensive zones of anomalous gold mineralization, a characteristic not seen on other parts of the system.

The broad anomalous gold values are conspicuous in drillhole CDH-25-217 and CDH-25-218 are hosted in rhyolite breccias and feldspar +/- quartz porphyritic intrusive rocks. These rocks display strong phyllic alteration with varying amounts of disseminated pyrite cut by sheeted stockworking of quartz veins typical of B type veins. The veins carry very little sulfide along with minor amounts of molybdenite. The geochemical signature of the gold mineralization is distinct from the silver veins indicating a separate event.  Additional information will be required to accurately estimate true widths represented by these intervals.

The current phase of work comprises a planned total 50,000-meter drilling program designed to follow up on mineralized veins comprising the Company’s recent 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate. The maiden MRE is detailed in a report entitled “Technical Report on theMaiden Mineral Resource Estimate for the Columba Ag-Pb-Zn Project, Chihuahua State, Mexico” and dated August 1, 2025, MRE effective date, May 29, 2025 was filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and is also available at the Company’s website at www.kootenaysilver.com. Kootenay Silver is fully funded through to the completion of the current 50,000-meter exploration drill campaign.

Columba High Grade Silver Project represents the newest and highest-grade silver deposit discovered and advanced in Mexico by Kootenay Silver since 2006.  A comprehensive list of drill results completed on the Columba Property since 2019 may be viewed here: Columba Drill Results.

Extension of Sideways Frequency LLC

The Company would also like to announce that, subject to regulatory approval, it has extended its appointment of Sideways Frequency LLC who has been providing the Company with certain marketing services in compliance with the policies and guidelines of the TSX Venture Exchange and other applicable legislation. The marketing services include, but are not limited to, email campaigns, native advertising, display ads, lead generation, creation of content, strategic planning, digital advertisement placement, and overseeing progress and results of digital campaigns. Under the agreement, the Company paid SFLLC US$250,000 for an initial three-month term. The Company has elected to renew the agreement for an additional three-month term for US$250,000. Consideration offered to SFLLC does not include any securities of the Company. Aside from this engagement, the Company does not have any relationship with SFLLC and Mr. Wesley De Souza, CEO of SFLLC. SFLLC holds no securities of the Company nor has any interest, direct or indirect, in the Company. SFLLC’s address is 1389 Center Drive, Suite 200, Park City, Utah, 84098, info@sidewaysfrequency.com.

About Columba Project

The Columba project is a classic high grade epithermal vein system. That management believes is a newly recognized vein district. It is typical in character and size of other vein districts in Mexico known to have deposited significant resources of silver or gold such as La Chispas and Panuco.

Hosted within a volcanic caldera setting, the surface extent of mapped veins measures roughly 4 kilometres by 3 kilometres. Vein mineralization occurs over a minimum vertical extent of 350 meters as shown by drilling. The veins appear to be intermediate sulfidation veins indicating the potential for depths exceeding 700 meters of vertical extent. This remains to be tested, and all veins remain open to depth.

The veins cut every known rock type on the project and the veins or vein structures can be traced across the highest elevations of the caldera. This indicates veins formed late in caldera history. As elevation increases vein development becomes irregular eventually being replaced by breccias at the higher elevations. Silver grades diminish with increasing elevation right down to background values. Correspondingly silver grades increase with depth from background at higher elevations to highs of kilograms per tonne at depth. It is evident from these features that the vein system has undergone almost no erosion and so whatever silver was deposited originally is largely still there.

A general rule of thumb on the project is at levels deeper than 1,750 meters above sea level is where good grades begin to appear. This is what is referred to as the grade line.

Prior to Kootenay Silver no exploration had occurred at Columba in nearly 40 years.  Historically there were two periods of mining on one of the veins referred to as the F Vein. The first being in the early 1900’s when underground development included 6 drifts (tunnels) at different levels coming off a 200-meter-deep shaft. This work was halted by the Mexican Revolution. Then a second brief period of mining occurred around 1958 to 1960 when a small private company used the old development to mine. It is estimated that around 100,000 tonnes were mined.

Kootenay acquired 100% of the project and has completed detailed mapping, lidar, and airborne magnetic surveys along with over 53,000 meters of drilling in over 200 holes across various veins. The company also has a 24-year surface access agreement that includes annual and other payments and allows for both exploration and exploitation. The agreement covers all the mineralized areas drilled to date.

About Kootenay Silver Inc.

Kootenay Silver Inc. is an exploration company actively engaged in the discovery and development of mineral projects in the Sierra Madre Region of Mexico. Supported by one of the largest junior portfolios of silver assets in Mexico, Kootenay continues to provide its shareholders with significant leverage to silver prices. The Company remains focused on the expansion of its current silver resources, new discoveries and the near-term economic development of its priority silver projects located in prolific mining districts in Sonora, State and Chihuahua, State, Mexico, respectively.