Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW) CEO Michael Hudson on Final 9 Drill Holes from Winter Drill Program at Rajapalot Project in Finland, Including the Thickest Intercept to Date

June 24, 2020

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the Chairman and CEO of Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW)(OTC: MWSNF), Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, how are you this morning?

Michael Hudson: Again, Gerardo, top of the world. Thanks, mate.

Gerardo Del Real: More good news for Mawson. You just drilled the thickest intercept to date at Palokas in Finland. 5 meters at 5.9 grams per tonne gold. That isn't the thickest intercept. The thickest intercept, I believe, was 44.6 meters at 1.4 grams per tonne gold and 452 PPM cobalt for a gold equivalent number of 1.6 grams per tonne. Is that accurate, Mike?

Michael Hudson: Yeah, that first number was included in the second from the one drill hole. But absolutely, that's correct.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Can you provide some color? It's 9 holes, the final 9 from what you have to describe as a very, very successful drill program. Can you provide a brief overview of the positives from the program, what you learned, and how that ties into what comes next?

Michael Hudson: Yeah. In summary, it's just more good results, not the snappiest headline like we've had over the last three or four where we've been hitting 5 to 10 meters at 15 to 20 grams, but very good solid numbers. These will add all to the resource expansion that is in play and will come out in August. 

Good step-outs, that number that you just talked about, the 44.6 meters, was somewhere between 40 to 70 meters from an existing drill hole, which hit 7 meters at 21. As I've said to you before, we couldn't have asked for more. There was a number of other results that we hit in the program in the last 9 holes across three of the project areas over 4 by 3 kilometers. We're building the system in lots of different areas. That sort of may have been lost because there was a lot of results thrown in those last 9 holes.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, you're not resting anytime soon either. I understand that exploration programs will recommence briefly here in both Finland and Australia. Can you speak to that a bit? I know more details will be forthcoming, but can you provide a glimpse as to what you're planning both in Finland and Australia?

Michael Hudson: Yeah. We've got $18 million cash, Gerardo, which is the key point. We've got a gold market and we've been working very hard over the last number of years to get ourselves into this position where we have not only an exciting exploration project in Finland that's pivoted to resource and resource expansion, but there's a hell of a lot more to find in Finland as an exploration story. That's what we will be doing over the next weeks. 

We're starting EM, which is geophysical technique, electromagnetics, that has worked very well around the existing resources and helped us expand those. We can get into areas that are 500 meters along strike from those areas in summer-permitted areas where it's a bit dryer. We'll run geophysics over that large area, a 3 or 4 kilometer trend along strike there. Ideally, if we can nail some good targets and conductors, we will be drilling those.

Then in Australia, we completed a very comprehensive deal, three projects and a big right of first refusal on a huge land package down in Australia. That closed at the end of March. We're just coming out of lockdown here in Australia. I was on the ground for the first time two days ago. We'll have teams – well, we've got a team starting now actually as we speak. We'll plan the work programs and what we need to do, but the obvious things are to, again, run some geophysics to develop drill targets and ideally be drilling in Australia over, well, the next quarter or so. 

They're the work programs, and of course as I mentioned, the resource in Finland will come around August, that resource upgrade for the finished project.

Then, of course, I've just described sort of what's going to take us to the second half of 2020, but that will be capped off by a 15 to 20-kilometer drill program in Finland when everything freezes again and we can get back to these resource areas and bring more of the pre-resource areas into that resource category also. There's a lot of work there. No doubt, we're going to be busy.

Gerardo Del Real: Mike, before I let you go, I want to go back to the conductor, specifically in Finland, because those were extremely important in figuring out and aiding in and, frankly, really deciphering the geologic model in Finland that led to the incredible success of the drill program. Right? You were extremely successful once you kind of were able to map that out. Can you speak to why those conductors are so important to get right?

Michael Hudson: Yeah. They're a great proxy for finding gold, basically. The gold is associated with a sulfide mineral called pyrrhotite. Pyrrhotite is intimately associated. Where we get pyrrhotite, we generally get gold. It's not one to one, but pretty close. The pyrrhotite lights up like a Christmas tree when we put current on the top of the ground. We make these big metal detectors, not like people you'd see on the beach with a metal detector that's 20 centimeters by 20 centimeters. The head, we make them basically 500 meters by 500 meters. That works on the same principle, though, as finding a coin or a ring. We just find these gold bodies that pyrrhotite lights up. That's led to this successful drill program this year. We drilled 9  of the top 40 intersections for the project were drilled this year. We've been able to predict gold and hit it. The EM has been a big part of that.

Gerardo Del Real: Well said. Mike, a lot of news flow and an exciting second half of 2020, obviously anticipated by shareholders. I'm looking forward to the resource update. I'm looking forward to the geophysics program. Of course, I know everybody, including subscribers, many of which have written in, are incredibly excited about Australia and the potential for another company maker there. Anything else that you'd like to add to that, Mike?

Michael Hudson: No, I better get back and try and find some more gold, I think, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Keep doing that. Thanks a lot, Mike. I appreciate it.

Michael Hudson: Take care.

Click here to see more from Mawson Gold Ltd.