Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW) CEO Michael Hudson on Exploration Efforts at 9 High-Grade Boulder Fields at the Rajapalot Gold Project in Finland

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 afternoon?

Michael Hudson: Absolutely fantastic. Always good to have a chat with you, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: I appreciate the opportunity. You had some news this week from Mawson that I thought was pretty important and I had some questions about. The headline reads, "Mawson Exploring Nine High Grade Boulder Fields Over 12 Square Kilometers in Finland." Now, some of your peers earlier this year got a very, very good response from the discovery of these types of boulder fields. You have over 160 boulders with gold grades ranging from 0.1 grams per tonne gold to an astonishing 3,870 grams per tonne gold. I wanted to talk with you to get some of the details. What can you share about these boulder fields and the sources of these boulder fields?

Michael Hudson: Importantly, Gerardo, exploration is back and we've spoken about that and people are getting enthused about exploration again. We've got a paucity of metal supply through a number of the key commodities. Gold is no different. People talk a lot about peak gold, but the average gold grade in a mine today is a gram per tonne. The gold grade of those deposits that are waiting there to be mined next is 20% less at 0.8 grams. The quality of deposits is getting less, discovery is getting harder and exploration, as a consequence, is getting rewarded again. That's where the true value of mining is created in the exploration business.

Here, we have in Mawson a fantastic discovery that really was only made during the depths of last cycle and even ourselves internally hadn't appreciated as much as what we had on reflection, if you like, and exploration is all about learning and going back to data. We hadn't drilled this property with intensity until September last year, when we got our permits to drill. We made these boulder discoveries obviously a few years before that, like I said, at the depths of the downturn. We had a chance to go back and relook at these boulders because we're finding more of them in the field. I was there last week and we're finding more and more of these boulders everywhere we look. We found that these boulders, when we compared them to the drilling that we've completed in that first phase drill program only in the last winter, that we've only hit 3 out of the 9 boulder fields, and the 3 that we've hit are ripe for expansion, of course, and then there's another 6 with these fantastic grades.

We're getting averages over 2.5 ounces of gold per tonne in these boulder fields. It's early days, prospectivity is high and like I said not only ourselves have forgotten about the details of this project and just how good it is, but I know certainly the market needed a bit of a refresh in context with our most drilling. I hope people appreciate the prospectivity here.

Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely, and just to provide some context, it's a district scale land package. 6 of the 9 gold bearing boulder fields, the sources remain to be discovered and that's important because 3 have been discovered and you've gotten some amazing intercepts. Palokas had an intercept of 10 meters at 11.6 grams per tonne gold from 110 meters. Another area had 27 meters of 3.3 grams per tonne gold from 64 meters and South Palokas had 8.4 meters at 4.2 grams per tonne gold from 206 meters. It's not like finding the sources of these boulders is leading to dry holes, you're actually getting some very, very good grades over significant widths once you discover the source. What's next to find the source of these 6 boulder fields that you've yet to discover?

Michael Hudson: Those results you just read out there, Gerardo, are over multiple kilometers. They're over two plus kilometers that we found them. Palokas was the first discovery we made on the property and the boulder field around that is very weak. We drilled a lot better than what we found at surface, which is really an important point to make there, for example.

What's next is we're going through a hole in this area, we going through a hole of compilation and scientific research, if you like, to pull all this information together, pull it together with the drilling and exploration’s iterative. We see what we've drilled, the mineralizations we have in the drill holes and pull it back to the boulders that we've found. If there's a consequence, that's what we found that we've only tested 30% of these boulder fields in this 4 by 3 kilometer area, which is a small part of the district land package that you mentioned, 100 square kilometers, the 10 by 10 kilometers that we're working on. Also, we're drilling on another part of the property, this Rajapalot area, this 12 square kilometers, is only one smaller part of that bigger package.

What are we doing after? We're pulling it all together, we're going to drill. Drill baby, drill is what some people say and that's what we have to do. It's a thin veneer of glacial till or soil covering the whole property. So we basically got our blinkers on, apart from some of these boulder fields that give us a window to what's the depth and we need to intensively drill that this winter. That's quite a wet area, so we're only permitted to drill during the freeze and logistically can only get rigs in there during the freeze, which will start December, January.

Gerardo Del Real: You said exploration was back. After spending 17 years in Alaska, I definitely have an appreciation for Sarah Palin's famous quote, "Drill baby, drill." So I want to appreciate and say thank you for the laugh and the wit there, Mike. What is next from Mawson Resources? You're drilling right now. We expect obviously some exciting results from that program. When can we anticipate those?

Michael Hudson: That'll come out over the next month or so. It's really just the start of that program, a RC program, just to drill beneath the till looking for these style of discoveries 8 kilometers away. They'll come over the next month or so, but it's very exciting, Gerardo. It's a ripe property that we can now extend and explore in a market that is rewarding exploration.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. With gold pushing $1350 as we speak, with a land package the size that you have and the prospectivity of it, I have to imagine that you're getting phone calls. I know you have to be careful here, but I imagine that you're getting phone calls from mid-tiers and or majors that would like to visit, or have visited the property. Is there anything that you can comment on in that regard?

Michael Hudson: Of course, I can't comment specifically about anything there, Gerardo, but I can tell you there's been over the last 18 months, and even over the last week, we've seen huge activity by majors coming into the sector. Over the last 18 months, there's been over half a billion dollars that the majors have put into the junior sector. It's certainly a source of funds that didn't exist 18 months ago, two years ago. We know they're looking everywhere around the world, let me say that. That's because there's a paucity of projects and a paucity of new discoveries and it's companies like Mawson that are making these discoveries that are attracting the attention of these majors around the world.

Gerardo Del Real: I know they're looking for scale. I know they're looking for grade. You obviously have the scale, and you've demonstrated grade, so it should be an interesting next 6 months to see what develops on that front. Obviously, there's been a lack of quality exploration over the past 5 years. The majors are still not coming around and exploring themselves. As you mentioned, they're looking to inject capital and let the juniors do the explorations. It should be exciting times for Mawson. Anything else that you'd like to add, Mike?

Michael Hudson: No, that's it, Gerardo. Keep your eyes on our drill programs and on our further discoveries. This is a developing story without a doubt.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. I look to have you back as soon as we start getting some more assays in. Thank you for your time today, Mike.

Michael Hudson: Thanks so much, Gerardo.

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