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Mawson Gold (TSX: MAW)(OTC: MWSNF) CEO Michael Hudson on Thickest Mineralized Intercepts To-Date & Two New Discovery Areas at Flagship Rajapalot Gold-Cobalt Project, Finland
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the chairman & CEO of Mawson Gold — Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, how are you today?
Michael Hudson: I am “Top of the world down under,” Gerardo, to use my moniker!
Gerardo Del Real: I love it! I also love the news release that you just put out. You've defined two new areas in first winter drilling results from Finland. Highlight number is:
70.3 meters of 1.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent and 1.5 meters at 19.6 g/t gold equivalent in a different area.
Two separate areas located outside and adjacent to the current resource areas, which, of course, bodes well for resource expansion, correct?
Michael Hudson: Exactly. It's a simple story, Gerardo. These are the thickest mineralization we've seen to-date on the property. Around a fold hinge in the larger scale — of sort of kilometer scale fold hinge where we were hoping that there would be a better interaction between that gold and the host rock — and that's what we're seeing.
We're seeing 70 meters of grade that is all within open-pittable depths. And then, another area that's continued to expand a brand new discovery we've made over the last few months. It’s that other side of the coin, you know, a thin 1.5 meter type thickness at 20 g/t type average grade.
So it's developing very interestingly. And that's what you sort of want to see in a system. It's big and thick and thin and high-grade. And what's most important is that we'll end up putting together a new resource by July, and these are all new areas. So people who think that this project has delivered good results to-date will continue to be surprised on the upside, I think. And they should be surprised on the upside here with these results.
So new areas, new discoveries all of the time. This is going to grow into a massive system, and I think it's just reflective of that. So basically two new areas of what are already three areas in the resource.
Gerardo Del Real: Extremely, extremely exciting! You announced 15 holes today. I believe two points that stood out to me were that true widths are approximately 90% of reported intervals. Is that accurate?
Michael Hudson: We hope so… because that's what we stated in our press release! Absolutely, that's our geological understanding. We orientate all of the drill core. We've got a very good 3D understanding. We've got a good idea of the controls on gold here. So to the best of our knowledge — then that is absolutely correct.
Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic! And the second point that stood out to me were the excellent cobalt grades. And we know that critical metals, and especially in Europe, are becoming increasingly important to government, to regions.
And I have to believe that the strategic resource that's growing there has to be very encouraging and positive on the permitting front, right?
Michael Hudson: Absolutely! This creates a strategic project not only for Finland but for Europe. This is already the 7th largest cobalt resource in Finland; in Europe, I should say. The 7th largest cobalt resource in Europe today as a byproduct. It's going to be plus-90% payables in this deposit, it looks like, for gold. So cobalt will only ever be a byproduct. But it's the 7th largest today.
It will move up the list. In our current presentation, there's a list of all of those resources through Europe. And Finland is very big in the battery supply chain; very big in the cobalt space. It refines 10% of the global cobalt. Half of the non-Chinese refined cobalt comes out of Finland today. Yet 90% of that feedstock comes from the DRC. So it's a well-known story. But having local Finnish and/or European supply into Europe to feed their battery needs is a huge part of the dynamic.
So building a resource like this with the cobalt grades that we're seeing is extremely important and will help support this project to be built over the coming years.
Gerardo Del Real: You have 50 drill holes left to be reported through to June and the resource update for July. That's a lot of news flow, and we haven't even touched on Australia, right?
Michael Hudson: Basically C$5 million worth of drilling is to come to the market over the coming months. So a hell of a lot of data is banking up in the lab and will be released in a very timely manner while we still drill and work towards a maiden resource in Australia.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent! Mike, I'm looking forward to the news; looking forward to the results from Australia, from Finland. Anything else to add?
Michael Hudson: A big system getting bigger! Thanks, Gerardo.
Gerardo Del Real: Thank you, Mike. Chat soon.
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