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Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW) CEO Michael Hudson is Back Exploring at Rompas, Site of Finland’s Best Gold Drill Hole
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is Chairman and CEO of Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW)(OTC: MWSNF), Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, how are you this morning?
Michael Hudson: I'm very well. Thanks, Gerardo.
Gerardo Del Real: Well a few months back I think you had the line saying exploration is back and Mawson is back exploring. You had some news this morning, Mawson's restarting exploration drilling at the Rompas gold prospect in Finland. Can you give us the details, Mike?
Michael Hudson: Sure, Gerardo. We're back after a few months hiatus after the end of the winter season. And we've been working hard over the last two months at a different part of the property. We've gone back after a 4-year hiatus, to where it all started for us, if you like, at the Rompas project.
Rompas is 8 kilometers away from Rajapalot where we put out the swag of great drilling results from the winter program. We hadn't permitted that area, it was under application for a number of years. There were some very slow permitting and some environmental issues that went around there in 2012. So we took our exploration dollars and spent them across at Rajapalot. But nevertheless, Rompas is a most intriguing project. It's the site of Finland's best gold drill hole that we drilled in 2012, we drilled 6 meters at 600 odd grams there just below surface.
And it's certainly an exciting area. We're actually not looking for the grade, we're looking for the Rajapalot disseminated style, adjacent to those very high grades. They're a little nuggety and harder to chase down, so we're looking for the tonnage type target adjacent to that within hundreds of meters from that zone. But we've got a very large area, a few thousand hectares permitted, and we're back there drilling as of today.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Now I understand that the initial drilling will be RC drilling. Is that correct?
Michael Hudson: That's correct. We're looking at the very early stage at this property, so it's a lower level of exploration if you like. We're really learning or researching, there's very little outcrop in the area and we know we have the right rocks. We know that a huge amount of gold has passed through the rocks and we've got to basically find where that gold has been trapped and stuck in the rocks, if you like, to use a simple term.
And RC drilling is a technique that is used in a lot of parts of the world, not so much in this part of the world due to high water flows in the rocks, and the rocks are very hard, so it hasn't taken off like it has in places where there's lots of weathering, in Australia for example, where it's used extensively.
So what we're doing here is just drilling beneath the glacial till which is the glacial soil horizon, if you like, that sits on top of the rocks, which will average we assume 3 to 5 meters thickness into the bedrock. And that allows us to sample right through, the RC technique, it allows us to sample right through from the RC, from the till through to the bedrock. Unlike the base of till drilling where we were drilling during the winter, which just gave us one sample in the weathered bedrock. So it's a trial as well as looking for gold technique.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Excellent. Now can you tell me a bit about the work that went into outlining and defining these targets. I understand obviously you did some mapping and some geophysics. Can you talk in detail about that, Mike?
Michael Hudson: Sure, we've had our master gold finder, Erkki Vanhanen, who's got his fingerprints over most of the large gold discoveries, if not all, he's got something like 10 million ounces behind him. He's our Chief Geologist here in Finland, and his expertise is really finding deposits. He's got his PhD but I call him a doctor of prospecting. He's been out at site with his team of younger geologists over the last few months, mapping, prospecting, and pulling together the target in a lot more detail.
So we've certainly had a team out at site for the last few months. When the snow left we got our boots on the ground. And then we highlighted an area that we know some of these gold rocks are conductive, or at least low resistivity, so we can map them geophysically beneath that thin layer of till that I was talking about.
So we had a technique called VLFR, which is a relatively low cost technique that actually works on submarine signals, the frequency of submarine signals. It sounds like it's almost something would come out of NASA, right? But we're looking here in the arctic using that technique.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Excellent. Now, Mike, when can we anticipate assays might start coming back?
Michael Hudson: Assays will be 5 to 6 weeks I envisage, something around that order. The labs are actually getting busier, exploration is back certainly in the larger sense, and certainly it's back here in Finland, as we know a number of our competitors are having success like we've had over the number of years here finding a lot of gold here in Finland. The labs as a consequence are a little slower, but that's a good problem to have. I'm very glad that there's a lot more interest coming back into the exploration business.
Gerardo Del Real: It's definitely a good problem to have. It's great to see the labs busy again and it's good to see some good exploration work going into the ground. Mike, is there anything else that you'd like to add?
Michael Hudson: No, I think we nailed it. We're going back to the site of Finland's best drill hole that we drilled about 4 or 5 years ago. We've got something like 20 kilometers of target sequence here. It's a big target area, and we've just got to narrow it down. It's an early start and we're also working at Rajapalot. Like I said we've got the geologists not only working on the ground but working, pulling together all the winter drilling. And we've got some experts pulling together 2 and 3D models, who are helping us, global experts. It's really a hive of activity up here in Finland where I'm sitting talking to you now.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Excellent. Well, Mike, I'm looking forward to having you back on as those assays start coming back in. In the meantime I want to thank you for your time this morning. Appreciate the update.
Michael Hudson: Always a pleasure, Gerardo.
Gerardo Del Real: Thank you, Mike.
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