First Andes Silver Ltd.

Investment Thesis

First Andes Silver Ltd. (TSXV: FAS | OTC: FASLF | FSE: 9TZO) is a high-conviction exploration and development entity, strategically positioned in the premier silver jurisdictions of Peru and the Australian Lachlan Orogen.¹ The company’s flagship asset, the Santas Gloria Silver Project, represents a rare “first-mover” opportunity in a district-scale epithermal system that remained virtually untouched by modern systematic exploration until 2024.¹ By applying cutting-edge spectral mapping and systematic diamond drilling, the company has successfully confirmed the presence of high-grade silver mineralization across multiple vein corridors, validating a geological model that points toward a large-scale, well-preserved sulphide system at depth.⁵

The strategic pivot of the company in early 2024 has catalyzed a series of operational milestones, including the completion of two phases of diamond drilling, the identification of a significant 1.3 by 2.0-kilometer alteration cell, and the acquisition of a highly prospective Australian portfolio⁴.

Security Category	Units Outstanding (Millions)	Notes
Common Shares	86.51 M	Trading under FAS (TSXV), FASLF (OTC), 9TZO (FSE)¹
Restricted Share Units (RSUs)	3.12 M	Performance-based incentives¹
Stock Options	8.65 M	Managed to ensure alignment with milestones¹
Warrants	8.76 M	Potential for future capital influx¹
Fully-Diluted Total	107.74 M	Strategic float management for liquidity¹
Market Capitalization	$12 M - $15 M	Based on recent trading levels¹

On February 13, 2026, the company announced the closing of a private placement financing ¹⁰ resulting in the issuance of 16,708,331 common shares at a price of $C0.12 per share for total gross proceeds of $C2,004,999.72.¹⁰ The proceeds of this financing are strategically allocated to three primary areas: an augmented Q2 2026 drilling program at Santas Gloria, ongoing property-wide exploration including soil geochemistry, and general working capital.¹⁰

Insiders and close associates control approximately 40% of the common shares, while the remaining 60% comprises a mix of retail and institutional investors.¹ Furthermore, the transition to the OTC symbol “FASLF” on March 13, 2026, alongside DTC eligibility, and an expected uplisting to the OTCQB tier represents a critical step in enhancing liquidity for United States investors, effectively removing barriers to electronic clearing and settlement.⁹

Depth of Management and Corporate Governance

First Andes’ executive team and board of directors bring extensive technical and corporate experience to the Company, collectively facilitating over $C3.9 billion in merger and acquisition (M&A) deal flow.

Executive Management & Board of Directors

Ian Stalker (Executive Chairman): A senior executive with more than 50 years in the resource sector. Stalker has raised over $C1 billion in capital and led 12 major projects across gold, base metals, and battery minerals. His past leadership roles include serving as CEO of K92 Mining, LSC Lithium (sold for $C111 million), UraMin (acquired for $US2.5 billion) and founder and advisor of Tolu Minerals.¹

Colin Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo. (CEO & Director): A professional geologist and mining executive with over 20 years of experience across the Western Hemisphere. Smith’s expertise spans exploration, M&A, and project development. Notably, he led exploration at the Seabee Gold Operation for Claude Resources, which resulted in a $C337 million acquisition by SSR Mining in 2016.¹ His previous roles at Discovery Group and De Beers have provided him with a deep understanding of precious and base metal systems.¹

Chris Wilson, Ph.D., FAusIMM, FSEG (Chief Geologist): A commercially driven exploration geologist with over 30 years of global experience. Dr. Wilson has worked in over 75 countries on a wide variety of deposit styles, specializing in epithermal gold-silver-base metal vein systems. His expertise includes project valuation, acquisition strategy design, and value-added exit strategies.¹

Charles Hethey (Director): A securities lawyer with over 19 years of experience in capital markets, corporate finance and M&A in British Columbia and New York. He represents numerous listed mining companies on the TSX.V advising on all types of equity financings, public and private, as well as significant acquisitions through North and South America, Australia, Africa and South Pacific region. Hethey currently holds directorships at Great Pacific Gold Corp. and Zacatecas Silver Corp.¹

Patrick Hickey (Director): An engineer and executive with 40 years of experience at industry leaders such as BHP, Kinross, and Newmont. Hickey formerly served as the President and Director of the $C2 billion Batu Hijau mine and the COO of Lion One Metals, bringing significant operational depth to the board.¹

James Hutton (Corporate Advisor): A capital markets veteran with 40 years of experience. Hutton has facilitated over $C1.4 billion in flow-through financings and specializes in institutional capital raising and corporate finance for resource companies.¹

Ryan Johnson (VP, Corporate Communications): Johnson brings 20 years of capital markets experience specifically focused on corporate communications, investor relations, and digital marketing for public issuers.⁷ He has extensive experience managing large multi-channel marketing campaigns and assisting companies through financings and corporate transactions.

The Santas Gloria Silver Project: A District-Scale Opportunity

Located 55 kilometers east of Lima, Peru, the Santas Gloria Project covers 1,100 hectares within the heart of the prolific Miocene epithermal belt.¹ This region is globally recognized for its world-class silver and polymetallic deposits, yet Santas Gloria remained fundamentally underexplored until modern techniques were applied by First Andes Silver starting in 2024.¹ The project is strategically positioned at an elevation of 3,400 meters, which is relatively low for the Peruvian Andes, allowing for year-round operational access and simplified logistics.¹⁷

Geological Framework and Mineralization Style

Santas Gloria is characterized as an intermediate-sulphidation Ag-Pb-Zn-Au epithermal system. At the surface, the project hosts 23 mapped epithermal veins with a cumulative strike length exceeding 12 kilometers.¹ These veins exhibit widths ranging from 1 to 5 meters and are rich in silver, lead, and zinc, with localized high-grade gold.¹⁷

Historical and modern sampling has revealed the exceptional grade profile of the system:

Underground Channel Samples: Yielded results exceeding 16,000 g/t Ag, 20% Pb, 9.1% Zn, and 1.27 g/t Au (Tembladera vein).¹
Surface Channel Samples: Up to 56 g/t Au in outcropping veins such as the Kelly (undrilled).¹

The presence of outcropping multi-kilometer vein systems point to a robust hydrothermal plumbing system. Management’s geological thesis is that the high-grade oxide mineralization observed at the surface represents the upper portion of a well-preserved, fully intact sulphide system that remains open at depth.¹

Past Drilling and Exploration Successes

Since initiating the project’s first-ever drill program in 2024, First Andes has demonstrated a high success rate in intercepting mineralized epithermal structures. To date, 21 out of 26 diamond drill holes have returned significant silver intercepts, confirming the continuity of mineralization across four primary vein systems: San Jorge, Tembladera, Maribel, and Paquita.¹

2024 Maiden Drill Program Results

The 2024 program (Phase 1) consisted of 12 holes totaling 1,175 meters. This phase was critical in validating the surface mapping and confirming that the veins carried consistent grades below the surface oxide layer.¹

Vein	Hole ID	From (m)	Length (m)	Ag (g/t)	Au Eq (g/t)	Ag Eq (g/t)
San Jorge	SG003	85.5	7.4	193	224	1644
including	SG003	88.7	1.0	701	754	716
San Jorge	SG001	47.3	3.1	138	155	481
Maribel	SG010	12.4	4.1	54	78	320
Paquita	SG011	35.4	3.3	64	110	363
including	SG011	36.7	0.5	310	391	188

2025 Follow-Up Drilling Results

The 2025 program (Phase 2) focused primarily on the San Jorge vein, with 14 holes totaling 2,025 meters completed.¹ This program targeted deeper levels of the system and aimed to identify the transition into the primary sulphide zone. Of the 14 holes drilled, 11 returned strong silver intervals, further demonstrating the reliability of the geological model.¹

Vein	Hole ID	From (m)	Length (m)	Ag (g/t)	Au Eq (g/t)	Ag Eq (g/t)
San Jorge	SG022	91.9	3.9	249	268	1045
including	SG022	95.1	0.7	606	638	447
San Jorge	SG019	109.8	1.1	332	350	385
San Jorge	SG024	231.7	1.9	191	239	454
including	SG024	231.7	0.5	494	597	299
San Jorge	SG017	174.7	6.2	165	191	1184
including	SG017	176.8	0.6	534	579	347

Modern Exploration Techniques: Satellite Mapping and Geochemistry

A defining characteristic of First Andes approach is the integration of modern technology to accelerate exploration in a historically understudied district. In late 2025, the company launched a property-wide exploration initiative that utilized high-resolution satellite spectral alteration mapping and systematic soil sampling to delineate a new generation of drill target corridors.⁸

WorldView-3 Spectral Alteration Mapping

The Company employed WorldView-3 (WV-3) satellite technology to map mineral alteration across a 50 km² area encompassing Santas Gloria.¹ This technology allows for the detection of specific mineral signatures that indicate hydrothermal activity, even where veins do not outcrop.⁸

Discovery of Alteration Cell: The WV-3 data successfully identified a 1.3 by 2.0-kilometer zoned alteration cell.¹
Geological Zonation: The cell exhibits a mineral assemblage typical of intermediate-sulphidation systems, including kaolinite, sericite, and iron-oxide gossans.¹
Strategic Overlap: Critically, this alteration center overlaps with multiple undrilled vein systems totaling over 5 kilometers of strike length, providing new vectoring insights into highly prospective portions of the epithermal system.¹

Property-Wide Soil Geochemistry

In early 2026, the company released the results of Phase 1 soil sampling, which covered 6.5 kilometers of cumulative vein strike in the northern half of the project.¹⁹

Results: The program delineated multiple kilometer-scale silver-in-soil anomalies tracking known and suspected vein corridors.²⁰
Kelly Anomaly: Identified as the largest and most intense corridor, measuring 850 by 400 meters with peak values of 68.1 ppm silver.¹⁶
Rosario and Paquita Trends: These trends showed excellent multi-line continuity, tracking mapped veins and suggesting structural thickening at depth.²⁰

These results are currently being integrated with the WV-3 data and ground-based geophysics to prioritize targets for Phase 3 and Phase 4 drilling.¹⁸

Relationship to Successful Peer Companies

In the mining world, being in a “good neighborhood” is one of the most important factors for success. First Andes is located in a famous mining belt that has produced billions of dollars worth of silver.¹

First Andes is in an area known as the Miocene Epithermal Belt. This area is full of successful companies that have found notable amounts of silver.

Pan American Silver (~US$30B market cap): One of the largest silver producers globally. Pan Am operates the Huaron mine in the same region as Santas Gloria.²³
Hochschild Mining (~US$5.5B market cap): Major epithermal silver-gold producer with primary high-grade underground mine operations (Pallancata, Inmaculada and Arcata) within Miocene epithermal belt of Peru.
Volcan Compañía Minera (~US$4B market ca): Operates within the Peruvian Miocene epithermal belt, producing Ag-Zn-Pb-Cu from a polymetallic intermediate-sulphidation system, very comparable to Santas Gloria. Long history of large-scale, multi-vein district mining. Demonstrates district-scale continuity and metal endowment.

Why These Comparisons Matter

The relevance of these peer comparisons lies in the shared geological, operational, and jurisdictional characteristics that underpin successful silver-gold systems within the Miocene Epithermal Belt.

First Andes exhibits several key attributes consistent with established producers in the district:

High-Grade Epithermal Mineralization: Sampling and drilling at Santas Gloria confirm the presence of high-grade silver-dominant mineralization, comparable in tenor to producing operations within the belt.
Favourable Infrastructure and Location: Proximity to Lima and existing road and power infrastructure aligns with the logistical advantages that support low-cost development across peer operations.
District-Scale System Potential: The presence of >20 mapped veins over >12 km of cumulative strike, together with a large alteration footprint, is consistent with the multi-vein, long-life systems observed at operations such as Huaron, Pallancata, and Volcan’s district-scale camps.

Collectively, these characteristics support the interpretation that Santas Gloria represents a mineralized system with the potential for similar scale and style to those that have underpinned long-term production within the Miocene Epithermal Belt.

Strategic Expansion into Australia: The Lachlan Orogen Portfolio

While Santas Gloria remains the flagship asset, First Andes recently completed the acquisition of three high-grade silver projects in New South Wales, Australia.⁴ This acquisition provides the company with geographic diversification and exposure to another of the world’s most productive mining regions.

Portfolio Breakdown

The Australian projects, Carrington, Stony Creek and Dartmoor, cover 454 km² and cover at least 12 historic silver and gold mines.⁴

Project	Size (km²)	Primary Target Style	Key Historic Results
Carrington	160	Iron-rich Au-Ag-Pb-Sb Skarn	6,037 g/t Ag, 85 g/t Au ¹
Stoney Creek	247	Orogenic and Epithermal Au-Ag	212 g/t Ag, 50 g/t Au¹
Dartmoor	47	Volcanogenic Massive Sulphides	980 g/t Ag, 12% Cu¹

First Andes will apply the same systematic exploration approach in Australia that has been successful in Peru. The initial focus will be on field validation of historic occurrences and early-stage target generation using geochemistry and geophysics.⁴ This “greenfields” opportunity in Australia provides the Company with valuable optionality across jurisdiction, commodity exposure, drilling timelines, and discovery potential, complementing ongoing exploration at Santas Gloria.¹

Infrastructure and Metallurgical Advantages

The economic viability of a mining project is often determined as much by its location as by its grade. Santas Gloria benefits from a suite of infrastructure advantages that significantly reduce the potential capital expenditure (CAPEX) required to move toward production.

Location: The project is only 55 kilometers (about a 3-hour drive) from Lima, the capital city of Peru, providing easy access to technical personnel and supplies.¹
Existing Infrastructure: High-voltage electrical lines and a water reservoir are located proximal to the project site.¹
Milling Opportunities: Santas Gloria is within 40 to 50 kilometers of several operating mines in the Morococha Mining Camp. Many of these mines have excess mill capacity, which could allow First Andes to process material locally without building a new plant.¹
Preliminary Metallurgy: Early tests on oxide samples from Santas Gloria have shown excellent results. Gravity plus cyanidation recoveries reached over 97% for gold and 82% for silver.¹⁸ Subsequent flotation tests on base-metal rich samples have also shown good preliminary recoveries, suggesting efficacy of conventional processing methods.¹

Community Relations and ESG Commitment

In Peru, where community support is critical for project success, the company has established positive, mutually beneficial relationships with local stakeholders.¹

Agreements in Place: The company has fully supportive local communities with formal agreements that allow for uninterrupted exploration and drilling.¹
Local Involvement: Local personnel are actively involved in all stages of exploration, from soil sampling to road maintenance, ensuring that the economic benefits of the project are shared with the community.¹
Social License: By prioritizing environmental stewardship and transparent communication, First Andes has secured a robust “social license” to operate, which is a major competitive advantage in the Andean region.¹³

Conclusion: Value Catalysts and the Road Ahead

First Andes represents a compelling discovery-driven opportunity in the junior mining sector, supported by an experienced management team, high-grade drill results, and a district-scale, highly underexplored epithermal system. The application of modern, systematic exploration techniques has led to the identification of a large alteration cell and multiple coherent soil anomalies, highlighting the untapped exploration potential at Santas Gloria. As the Company advances toward its 2026 drill program in Peru and target generation in Australia, First Andes remains well-capitalized and strategically positioned to execute on its exploration objectives and deliver long-term shareholder value.

Summary of Upcoming Work for 2026

The following summary outlines the critical operational milestones planned for First Andes in the coming months.

Phase 3 Diamond Drilling (Q2/Q3 2026): A roughly 3,500-meter drill program is planned for the Santas Gloria Project, focusing on high-grade targets at the Tembladera and San Jorge veins, and potentially additional veins property-wide. This program will specifically test the depth extensions of previous intercepts to confirm the existence of a high-grade sulphide system.⁶
Completion of Property-Wide Geochemistry: The company will launch Phase 2 soil sampling in March 2026, targeting 1,430 samples across the southern half of the Santas Gloria project, including the newly defined 1.3 by 2.0 km alteration center.¹
Advanced Target Integration: During the first half of 2026, management will integrate the final results from the Phase 1 and Phase 2 soil assays with high-resolution WorldView-3 spectral mapping. This data-driven approach will be used to rank and refine targets for a subsequent Phase 4 drill program.¹⁸
Australian Fieldwork Initiation: Following the acquisition of the Lachlan Orogen licenses, First Andes will begin fieldwork in Australia. Initial activities will include soil and stream-sediment geochemistry and field validation of historic mines to prioritize areas for future drilling.⁴
Metallurgical Optimization: Continued metallurgical test work will be conducted at SGS Lakefield on mineralized core samples.¹
Enhanced Corporate Communications: By adding dedicated Corporate Communications to the team, the company will implement an expanded marketing and investor relations strategy. Prior to this initiative, there was no capital spend allocated to marketing initiatives.⁷

FIRST ANDES SILVER CORPORATE HIGHLIGHTS

First Andes Silver Ltd. (the “Company”) is an exploration and development company strategically positioned in premier silver jurisdictions of Peru and the Australian Lachlan Orogen.¹
The company’s flagship asset, the 1,100-hectare Santas Gloria Silver Project in Peru (the “Project”) is located 55 kilometers east of Lima, within the heart of the prolific Miocene epithermal belt.¹
Santas Gloria hosts a district-scale intermediate-sulphidation epithermal system, expressed by 23 mapped veins with a cumulative strike length exceeding 12 kilometers.¹ The veins exhibit widths ranging from 1 to 5 meters at surface, and are rich in silver, lead, and zinc, with localized high-grade gold.¹⁷ The Project remained largely underexplored by modern systematic exploration until 2024.¹
Historical and modern sampling has revealed the exceptional grade profile of the system:
- Underground Channel Samples: Yielded results exceeding 16,000 g/t Ag, 20% Pb, 9.1% Zn, and 1.27 g/t Au.¹
- Surface Channel Samples: Identified up to 56 g/t Au ¹
In 2024, the Company completed Santas Gloria’s maiden phase of diamond drilling at Santas Gloria, with reportable silver grades reported on all drilled vein systems, including San Jorge, Tembladera, Paquita and Maribel.⁴
The maiden drill program at Santas Gloria consisted of 12 holes totaling 1,175 meters. This phase was critical in validating the surface mapping and confirming that the veins carried consistent grades below the surface oxide layer.¹
The Company conducted a follow-up 2,025-metre drill program in 2025, focusing on the high-grade San Jorge vein, and returned strong silver intercepts in 11 of 14 holes. To date, First Andes has drilled significant silver intercepts in 21 of the Project’s first 26 holes, confirming in situ, mineralized epithermal vein systems at San Jorge, Paquita, Maribel and Tembladera.
Management’s geological thesis is that the oxide mineralization drilled to date represents the upper portion of a well-preserved, fully intact and higher-grade sulphide system that remains open at depth.¹
In Q4 2025, the Company launched a property-wide exploration initiative that utilized high-resolution satellite alteration mineral mapping (WorldView-3 SWIR and LWIR data) and systematic soil sampling to generate a new group of drill targets.⁸
WorldView-3 (WV-3) facilitated mineral alteration mapping across a 50 km² area encompassing Santas Gloria.¹ This technology allows for the detection of up to 12 specific alteration minerals that represent key pathfinders in epithermal systems.⁸
Santas Gloria is located within the prolific Miocene Epithermal Belt, a geological terrain that hosts numerous significant silver and gold deposits, with some of the following operators:
- Pan American Silver (~US$30B market cap): One of the largest silver producers globally. Pan Am operates the Huaron mine in the same region as Santas Gloria.²³
- Hochschild Mining (~US$5.5B market cap): Major epithermal silver-gold producer with primary high-grade underground mine operations (Pallancata, Inmaculada and Arcata) within Miocene epithermal belt of Peru.
- Volcan Compañía Minera (~US$4B market ca): Operates within the Peruvian Miocene epithermal belt, producing Ag-Zn-Pb-Cu from a polymetallic intermediate-sulphidation system, very comparable to Santas Gloria. Long history of large-scale, multi-vein district mining. Demonstrates district-scale continuity and metal endowment.
When compared to regional producers, First Andes exhibits key attributes associated with successful polymetallic epithermal systems, including high-grade silver mineralization confirmed through drilling and sampling, strong access to infrastructure such as roads, power, and nearby processing facilities, and a district-scale network of over 23 mapped veins. These factors collectively support the potential for a scalable and developable mineralized system.
Santas Gloria benefits from a suite of infrastructure advantages that significantly reduce the potential capital expenditure required to move toward production.
- Location: The project is only 55 kilometers (about a 3-hour drive) from Lima, the capital city of Peru, providing easy access to technical personnel and supplies.¹
- Existing Infrastructure: High-voltage electrical lines and a water reservoir are located proximal to the project site.¹
- Milling Opportunities: Santas Gloria is within 40 to 50 kilometers of several operating mines in the Morococha Mining Camp. Many of these mines have excess mill capacity, which could allow First Andes to process locally without building a new plant.¹
Preliminary Metallurgy: Early tests on oxide samples from Santas Gloria have shown excellent results. Gravity plus cyanidation recoveries reached over 97% for gold and 82% for silver.¹⁸ Subsequent flotation tests on base-metal rich samples have also shown strong preliminary recoveries, suggesting amenability to conventional processing methods.¹
First Andes recently completed the acquisition of three high-grade silver projects in New South Wales, Australia.⁴ This acquisition provides the Company with geographic diversification and exposure to one of the world’s most productive mining regions, the Lachlan Orogen.
The Australian portfolio covers 454 km² and encompasses at least 12 historic silver and gold mines, and First Andes will apply the same systematic exploration methodology in Australia that has been successful in Peru.
First Andes offers investors a high-torque, discovery-driven opportunity in the junior mining sector, supported by an experienced management team, a district-scale epithermal system with demonstrated high-grade mineralization, and a clear pipeline of upcoming catalysts. These factors provide a strong foundation for continued exploration success and value creation.
Ongoing property-wide exploration has already identified a large WorldView-3 alteration cell and multiple coherent soil anomalies, underscoring the broader exploration potential at Santas Gloria. Importantly, the project has seen little to no systematic modern exploration prior to 2024, suggesting substantial discovery upside remains across the property. As the Company advances toward its 2026 drill programs in Peru and target generation in Australia, it remains well-capitalized and strategically positioned to execute on its exploration objectives.
Phase 3 diamond drilling at Santas Gloria, planned for Q2 2026, will comprise approximately 3,500 metres, targeting high-grade vein shoots along the Tembladera and San Jorge vein systems, and potentially additional veins property wide. Concurrently, additional metallurgical test work will be conducted on mineralized core samples to support flowsheet development and assess potential pathways for early-stage processing through local milling arrangements.
Beginning in Q2 2026, the Company also intends to expand its investor relations and marketing initiatives through increased market engagement and participation in key industry events.