Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW) CEO Michael Hudson on Government-Funded Drilling at Mt Isa, Australia, Resource Update at Palokas in Finland & Additional Drilling at Redcastle in Victoria, Australia

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: A beautiful day here down under. Looking forward to it, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: It's not often nowadays that I get caught by surprise. I usually am anticipating news. With Mawson I've been anticipating the resource update, which we know is due here, hopefully in a couple of weeks. I've been anticipating a resumption of exploration in Finland, I know that's ongoing. I've been anticipating, obviously, exciting drilling from Australia. I knew we would have at least two programs of drilling this year and a resource estimate. That was plenty exciting in this gold bull market. 

But the news today caught me a little off guard. Do you care to share how we're going to end up with at least three drill programs this year?

Michael Hudson: Exactly. Well we're explorers, Gerardo. You can think of exploration like a triangle, I suppose. Down at the bottom of the triangle it's wider and broader. You're bringing lots of projects in and you're trying to de-risk them and advance them. You can think of the pointy end of the triangle as a mine. We're always trying to advance projects up towards that pointy angle or pointy end.

Finland is getting close to that pointy end. Australia, well,the Victorian assets specifically are lower. We've got a drill rig turning up shortly within the next week or two, and geophysicists are going crazy on the ground at the moment. We're trying to work that up towards that stage.

Then we've got a number of other projects in our back pocket, if you like, that we've been working up over the last number of years at very low cost, doing the big broad data collection, opening up new search spaces. There's no better place to be than where this news came from, which is Mt Isa, which is one of the most prolific metal-endowed parts of the world that extends undercover. Literally again, nobody's looked.

Gerardo Del Real: It's incredible, right? You've been granted $200,000. You were among 24 companies to receive Queensland state government support for exploration focused, as the release details, on new economy minerals, including silver, copper, and gold. You get $200,000 and you're going to be drilling when, Mike?

Michael Hudson: Before the end of the year, and hopefully a long time before the end of the calendar year. September, October, I think is how it's looking. We're just finalizing drill contracts and the like. This is 100% funded to drill. This is a high-risk target, no doubt, undercover where there hasn't been a hole within tens of kilometers of this gravity anomaly.

Gravity measures the change in density of the subsurface. There's a higher gravity pull, if you like, around denser bodies. Bodies are denser for a number of different reasons. They may be intrusive rocks versus sedimentary rocks. They may have a lot of magnetite in them or a heavy mineral, or they may have a lot of sulfide, which is generally associated with any of those commodities; silver, gold, copper, et cetera. We've got to drill test it.

Mawson shareholders have the full upside here without any cost to the shareholder. It's a fantastic result. We're very thankful to the Queensland government who has put together this super boosted exploration package that is looking to increase activity in their state through exploration, the engine of the mining business, to make new discoveries and create new jobs.

Gerardo Del Real: Can we talk about the target? You mentioned it's a high-risk exploration target, but you're surrounded by South32. This is elephant country as you describe it in the release, right?

Michael Hudson: Yeah, absolutely. We're along strike and parallel to Cannington. Cannington was a discovery made in the '90s. During the early 2000s for many, many, many years, it was the single largest silver producer on earth. It's still a top 10 producer today. It's three quarters of a billion ounces of silver in that deposit or something like that. It's absolutely huge. 

We're exploring for another one of those. Not withstanding we don't really know what's underneath that cover, so there's an assumption. The other major deposit style up there are these iron oxide copper-gold deposits. Ernest Henry is probably the best example. It's very similar to Cannington, the discovery made at a similar time and still one of the world's super mines. It's a high-risk target, but we'll get a chance to see the rocks for the first time since 1.7 billion years when they were formed.

Gerardo Del Real: That's exciting, that's exciting. I mentioned the resource update that we're expecting. I mentioned exploration in both Finland and Australia. How are things coming along on those three fronts?

Michael Hudson: Yeah, all go. The resource we've always said August. That's what we're planning for. You'll see that come soon. The Australian side of things is really what has most people excited at the moment in the company. We just started with our geophysical crews on the ground this week. I was just out in the field the last few days. 

Drill rig is turning up within the next week or two, as I mentioned. It's just finishing another job. Then it'll mobilize to Sunday Creek, where we'll drill some holes and then move onto Redcastle. We'll be drilling consistently through this year when that rig turns up here in Victoria, and testing these super, uber high-grade systems that nobody's cared for until relatively recently. Of course, with Fosterville making their fantastic discoveries, we feel we have at least another shot at making one or two more of those in the ground that we have.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Mike, I believe the next time you and I speak, and we speak often, we'll be looking at a $2,000 gold price. Is there anything else that you'd like to add before I let you go?

Michael Hudson: Three drilling programs in three world-class terrains really is what we can look forward to here, plus the resource upgrade, as you said. We're fully funded. We've got a gold market. This is the time that we love to be in, where exploration is being rewarded. We've got lots of rigs. That's how you find these things turning.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Mike, good stuff as always. Thank you for the update.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.

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