NioCorp Reports Final Assay Results From the Department of War-Funded Elk Creek Drilling Campaign

Results Support Ongoing Resource and Reserve Uplift Efforts and Continue to Reinforce the Geological Confidence in the Elk Creek Deposit

CENTENNIAL, CO / ACCESS Newswire / January 12, 2026 / NioCorp Developments Ltd. ("NioCorp" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:NB), a leading U.S. critical minerals developer, today announced the final assay results from its completed 2025 drilling campaign at the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project (the "Elk Creek Project") in southeast Nebraska.

The assay results reported are consistent with the Company's expectations and reinforce confidence in the continuity and grade of mineralization within the targeted areas of the Elk Creek deposit. The drilling program focused on areas of the deposit where additional data density was required to support higher confidence classifications under applicable reporting standards. The results are being used to update the Elk Creek Project's Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve.

"These results reflect an excellent job by our colleagues at Dahrouge in targeting the drillholes to intercept the correct geologic units in the ore zone," said Scott Honan, President and Chief Operating Officer of NioCorp. "The highlighted intervals are a further reflection of the robustness and large size of the Elk Creek deposit."

"I am very pleased to see the completion of the assay analyses of the more than 7,000 drill core samples that our Department of War-funded infill drilling campaign produced," said NioCorp CEO and Chairman Mark A. Smith. "The results we are seeing are very encouraging. The team is now working diligently to incorporate these results into an updated mineral resource and reserve and mine plan, which is a key component of the updated Feasibility Study that will help the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. complete its diligence of our pending debt financing application."

Mr. Smith added: "I am also proud of the fact that NioCorp follows the highest technical standards in conducting this work so that we can meet the compliance requirements of both the Securities and Exchange Commission's SK1300 and Canada's NI 43-101 reporting requirements. Very few critical minerals projects in the U.S. operate with this level of rigor and regulatory compliance, and that fact sets the Elk Creek Project apart from many other projects because it reduces risk and allows investors to have greater confidence in our data and projected financial returns."

Table 1: Interval Highlights - Nb₂O₅

Table 2: Interval Highlights - Sc

Table 3: Interval Highlights - TiO₂

Table 4: Interval Highlights - TREO

Figure 1: 2025 Resource Drill Hole Location Map - Elk Creek Project, Southeast Nebraska

Supporting cross sections for the drill results reported herein are available on the Company's website here: https://www.niocorp.com/niocorp-2025-infill-drill-cross-sections/.

Table 5: Summary of Significant DDH Results

The table below shows highlights from the remaining resource drillholes completed during the 2025 program that have not previously been publicly released. These results will be utilized in updating the mineral resource and mineral reserve for the project.