Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Mawson Gold (TSX: MAW)(OTC: MWSNF) CEO Ivan Fairhall on Bonanza Grade Gold at Sunday Creek, Victoria, Australia

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Mawson Gold, Mr. Ivan Fairhall. Ivan congrats on the new gig. How are you today, sir?

Ivan Fairhall: I'm very good Gerardo. Thanks for that introduction and yeah, pretty pleased to have joined Mawson at this pivotal stage and exciting time.

Gerardo Del Real: It is a pivotal stage for two reasons. You have a project in Finland, which obviously is growing by the day. That looks more and more like it's destined to become a mine one day and I want to get into why you're perfect for that position in just a second, but I also have to congratulate you for the news this morning. You drilled 0.4 meters of 145.5 grams per tonne gold and 20% antimony within 21.7 meters of 4.7 grams per tonne gold, and 1% antimony in the deepest hole drilled at Sunday Creek. This of course in Victoria, Australia. Congrats there as well.

Ivan Fairhall: Yeah, obviously that's an excellent result and it's the best drill result of the program so far. And yeah, we're obviously just really pleased that our hard work's coming together and it's proof that we're really onto something down there.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about this more moment in time that Mawson Gold finds itself and you now have multiple very, very attractive gold projects. And I want to get into a bit of your background because I think it'll really speak to the next steps in developing those projects. Can you share a bit of your background, Ivan?

Ivan Fairhall: Sure. Yeah. Look, I'm an engineer by background and I've always, I've spent my entire career working in the mine development space. I started out as an engineer building mines and then I moved into a study management role where I was helping companies shape their project into something that's buildable and financeable, and that's how I met Mike Hudson. I got him out of trouble probably about 10 years ago on a mining project in Sweden. We'd stayed in contact and worked together on a few things over the years and yeah, look, it was a good opportunity for me to get involved and come and work on a development project because in the last seven years I've been working in private equity for a fund here in London, where we literally scoured the world looking for projects that were buildable and financeable through the cycle and had upside.

And when we did stumble on that literal one in a hundred projects, we worked in partnership with management to steward the project and not just the project, but also the capital market strategy. So when I got talking to Mike and he told me about the direction that he wanted to take Mawson, it was a bit of made in heaven and an opportunity for me to take those skills that I've developed throughout my career and put them into practice as we move what is a great resource of moving in towards being a mine up here in Finland.

Just want to also reiterate that it's not just about moving the project forward. We're going to continue to grow that project over time. So it's a dual strategy and exploration remains critical. We've really just scratched the surface on the path to the multimillion ounce discovery up here at Finland.

Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely. No. And I was going to add that I believe that project that you helped Mike with, I believe I wrote a check for that. If I'm not mistaken, it was the Woxna Graphite Project, correct?

Ivan Fairhall: It was, it was.

Gerardo Del Real: And obviously now that project owned by Leading Edge Materials and it just signed a joint venture. So obviously it's something that moved forward. Let's talk about the drill results out of Australia today, that project at Sunday Creek is really starting to take shape. The continuity’s there, the widths are there, the grades are phenomenal. Can you speak to how you view that project and what comes next there?

Ivan Fairhall: Yeah, sure. Look, we put in a 6,000 meter drill program and, and we have a genuine multi hole discovery. This being the best drill hole to date and the deepest, but still only 200 meters from the surface. And like you mentioned, it's a super high quality drill result. 21 meters at 5.6 grams a tonne, there's companies that would be falling all over themselves for a result like that. But the cream is of that is that 0.4 meters at 165 grams a tonne gold equivalent. They are super high grades and reflective of that Kirkland Lake, Fosterville style mineralization, which has really made that company. It's in the region and that's the playbook that we want to replicate. We're down there in the shadow of the head frame. And we're looking to make discoveries like that.

Gerardo Del Real: You're starting to take, as the release words it, bolder and larger step outs. That excites me because mineralization remains open at depth and this system continues, I believe, 10 kilometers to the east. Correct?

Ivan Fairhall: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. We're really only scratching the surface down there focused on a particular specific area where we've now multi-hole discovery and that's looking like that's going to hang together to a resource that we could probably pull together next year. But like you mentioned, it's a 10 kilometer system. We're only really discovered a few, or really only investigated a few hundred meters of that. But we put out a trenching result a week or two ago. That was 10 meters at 20 grams a tonne. So that's 200 meters stepped out further east. So there's clearly some continuity developing out of this system and a lot of upside to come.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Let me pivot back to Finland real quick. Walk me through how you see that project developing, Ivan.

Ivan Fairhall: Sure. Look, I'm actually, you're speaking to me from Finland. I'm up here working with the team at site and we are really working on multiple parts of the strategy. We've got the exploration, which is going to continue. We've got a big winter drill program plan 15 to 20,000 meters. And we are putting the finishing touches on where to put those holes, getting the right balance between growing resources that are in and around our existing million ounce discovery. But we've got a big land package here. A lot of, we've really only explored a postage stamp and we're going to go on find more resource ore bodies and demonstrate that we're onto a multimillion ounce system here. So that's the exploration part. We've already started our permitting and de-risking process. We've spent the day in a room with the permitting consultants as we work through all the steps in detail and how we continue to foster our existing relationships in the communities we work in and do the right studies to support the permitting process.

And part of that will be an engineering process to articulate what the mine is going to look like. And so that's moving towards PEA and PSF, and we are doing our desktop work internally to work out what is the optimum time and then put some bookends around what that project will look like as a study to make sure that we come out and put our best foot forward as we start to articulate what this resource looks like as a mine.

Gerardo Del Real: A busy time for you, a busy time for the company. I'm aware that there's also an internal review for how to best unlock value for the Australian assets, which again, in their own right now are turning into a really, really exciting new discovery. Anything to add to that. Ivan? Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate the update.

Ivan Fairhall: Yeah, no, look, as you mentioned, we're looking to articulate value there. Clearly with two great discoveries and a market cap at $40, $50 million Canadian, we're massively undervalued and the value's getting lost in that story. So the spin out and the value articulation of that Victorian discovery is critical in creating value for our shareholders. And we're just going through the steps to work out the best way to do that.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Well said, Ivan, thank you for the time.

Ivan Fairhall: Thank you. Talk to you soon Gerardo.

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