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Nio Strategic Metals Announces Executive Leadership Changes Bruno Dumais, currently CFO appointed President and Chief Operating Officer Jean-Sebastien Blanchette, appointed as Chief Financial Officer

Management Changes

Nio Strategic Metals Announces Executive

Leadership Changes

Bruno Dumais, currently CFO appointed President and Chief Operating Officer

Jean-Sebastien Blanchette, appointed as Chief Financial Officer

Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - April 9, 2026) - Nio Strategic Metals Inc. (TSXV: NIO) (OTC Pink:

NIOCF) ("

Nio

" or the "

Corporation

"), a critical mineral exploration company, is pleased to announce the

appointment of Bruno Dumais and Jean-Sébastien Blanchette to its executive suite. Mr. Dumais is

appointed as President and Chief Operating Officer while Mr. Blanchette is joining as Chief Financial

Officer.

Formerly CFO of Nio, Mr. Dumais has more than 30 years of senior management experience, including

strategic development and plan execution at various local and international publicly-traded organizations,

serving as their CFO. Known as a seasoned business leader constantly creating new opportunities while

managing risks and uncertainties, he brings to the table the vision and communications abilities to

further derisk and advance Nio's niobium exploration projects.

"I am very excited to be taking on this new role," said Mr. Dumais. "I believe Nio has great potential with

its critical mineral property located in the Oka region that uniquely positions the Company under the

current geopolitical uncertainty period surrounding the niobium supply" he added.

Mr. Blanchette has over 25 years of experience in the fields of finance and natural resources. Upon

graduating from Yale University, he has worked on Wall Street as senior financial analyst and portfolio

manager for various financial institutions, managing multi-hundred-million-dollar market neutral strategies

in the energy and mining sectors. "I'm joining an already well-seasoned team with a rare asset base and

am thrilled to be working with everyone," said Mr. Blanchette.

"Mr. Dumais is the right leader for Nio to promote our projects with local stakeholders, governmental

agencies and partners," said Hubert Marleau, current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the

Corporation. "Mr. Blanchette's extensive expertise and passion for leadership, business development

and operations will help Nio strengthen partnerships, further develop strategic alliances, and expand our

international sales presence."

"Following the recent funding round, Nio is extremely well positioned to demonstrate the potential

benefits of our strategic niobium asset not only for local stakeholders, but also for the Canadian

infrastructure, defence and aeronautical industries," added Mr. Marleau.

Stock Option Grant

The Board of Directors also announced that it has granted a total of 4,000,000 stock options to directors

and officers under its stock option incentive plan, at an exercise price of $0.27 per share. The options

have a five-year term. The stock options are subject to the terms and conditions of the Corporation's

stock option plan and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Nio Strategic Metals

Nio Strategic Metals is an exploration and development company, with a focus on becoming a

ferroniobium producer. The Corporation holds niobium properties located in Oka and near Mont-Laurier

and another exploration property in the Province of Québec.

For more information on the Corporation, please refer to the Corporation's public documents available

on SEDAR (

www.sedarplus.ca

) or on the Corporation's website (

https://niostratmet.com/

) or contact:

Bruno Dumais, Chief Operating Officer

[email protected]

514-560-7623

Jean-Sebastien Blanchette, Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

917-399-0437

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the

policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press

release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be

any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be

unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together,

"forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Statements,

other than statements of historical facts, may be forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-

looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "plans", "expects",

"estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words, or statements that certain

actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved", the

negative of these terms and similar terminology although not all forward-looking statement contains

these terms and phrases. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors

that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from

those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties

include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set out in Nio Strategic Metals' annual and/or quarterly

management discussion and analysis and in other of its public disclosure documents filed on

SEDAR at

www.sedarplus.ca

,

as well as all assumptions regarding the foregoing. Although Nio

Strategic Metals believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking

statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only

apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in

the disclosed time frame or at all. Except where required by applicable law, Nio Strategic Metals

disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a

result of new information, future events or otherwise.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit

https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/291756