Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Mawson Gold (TSX: MAW)(OTC: MWSNF) Executive Chairman Michael Hudson on Best Drill Hole Ever at Sunday Creek

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the Executive Chairman of Mawson Gold, Mr. Michael Hudson. Mike, how are you today, sir?

Michael Hudson: Gerardo, top of the world down under.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, let's talk about down under. Congratulations are once again in order. 51% owned Mawson subsidiary Southern Cross Gold just reported some numbers that are just nothing short of spectacular. Southern Cross drilled 331 meters of 6.8 grams per tonne gold. This spanned 18 high-grade veins, 200 meters down dip. It was an extension from previously announced results. The best holding to date, there were seven intersections of over 100 grams per tonne gold, and there was one up to 4,190 grams per tonne gold with assays pending for 18 holes. Congratulations. Those are absolutely phenomenal numbers.

Michael Hudson: Absolutely phenomenal, and we're very fortunate that we've got this system here. Gerardo. I think our strategy to look in the shadow of the head frame of Fosterville, which was four of the last six years the highest grade gold mine on earth at the lowest cost. It demonstrated the fertility of Victoria and brought hundreds of millions of dollars of exploration to the state from probably 2019 over the last four years. The bubble went out of the Victorian market a few years ago, but this is the discovery, and now this is one of the key global discoveries worldwide. I think I can say that hand on heart.

You mentioned some of the numbers there. This is the best hole that we've drilled on a cumulative gram per tonne meter basis. It had the highest single grade that existed on the property. It's over 4,000 grams. It had the deepest mineralization. It contained even a higher threshold of cutoff. It contained three of the top five intersections on the property. And most importantly, most importantly, it was a 200-meter, on average, it was 180 to 290 meters down dip extension of our previous best hole, 77B, that knocked it out of the park three or four weeks ago. So we've got two of the best holes globally sitting 200 meters apart. So it is just one of those holes. I've done a few interviews down here, and we've made analogies to sporting greats and sporting world records, and it's in that territory. It's a privilege to be working on a deposit like this.

Gerardo Del Real: How is the drilling coming along in regards to the pace of it? I know there's 18 assays pending. Clearly, if you didn't before, you clearly now have everyone's attention, because the valuation just from Mawson's 51% ownership on Southern Cross Gold is still pretty compelling despite the fact that you're hitting 52-week highs and rightfully so. But there still seems to be a disconnect between what the Southern Cross stake is worth and Mawson's market cap. I think Mawson's market cap sits somewhere around the $95 million mark, and the last time I looked, I think the interest in Southern Cross is being valued at something like $70 million, give or take. Am I accurate in that?

Michael Hudson: Yeah. Outside of currency differentiation, I suppose Southern Cross is around about $150 million Aussie, so $75 million Aussie attributed to the equity holding by Mawson. So that may be 60 to 65 Canadian, something like that. But it's a crazy opportunity here for both companies.

Gerardo Del Real: You absolutely went where I was trying to go. I was going to mention the fact that it's a heck of an opportunity, especially within the context of having a gold market that, to me, seems primed to break 2,000 here soon and head towards new all-time highs in US dollars. In many other currencies, it's already hit all-time highs. And so I think when you take the macro backdrop, you take the fact that there's four rigs on site, I believe, you take the cash position that Southern Cross has, and you take the world-class nature of this discovery, it seems not just compelling, but pretty simple a risk reward proposition if you believe that gold goes higher.

Michael Hudson: Well, the truth is that we haven't had a gold market while this discovery has just been getting better and better, and it has been getting better and better, and that's what good deposits do. As you understand them more and target the better areas, they should get better, and this one's no exception. And we haven't had a gold market to promote into. So I look forward to that day, without a doubt, because this is just one of those discoveries that's got a hell of a lot left in it. And if that other metric changes around a better market, then game on.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about some of the other assets in the Mawson portfolio. Before I let you go, Mike, can you just provide a brief overview to potentially new shareholders that may be following the Mawson story to play the Southern Cross drilling and discovery? There are other assets with what I think is clearly going to be a mine one day, multimillion-ounce potential. I think that gets overlooked completely in light of Southern Cross and the phenomenal numbers coming out of Sunday Creek.

Michael Hudson: So Mawson is essentially, well, there's four parts to Mawson. There's, of course, what we've just talked about, the Southern Cross holding, and we went into the valuation there, and Mawson is the major shareholder with 51%. Then there's a million-ounce gold equivalent and third resource that we made first principals in Finland. That is a gold cobalt play. That is still in resource expansion territory. We went through a PEA to articulate the project to basically keep the permitting ongoing, but we want to get back on the ground there and add another half to 1 million ounces, which would have a positive effect on that PEA. Basically adding more ounces with similar capital obviously is a simple mathematical way to create a better project. So that's what our aim is there.

And then we have all of the hard rock Swedish uranium assets in the company as well, about 23 million pounds historic there that we've just talked about, in the background a bit, have a look at our last MDNA that talks about that. Sweden has a ban on uranium exploration and mining at the moment, so they're not projects that we can explore, at least explore for uranium. We can explore for other elements there, but there's a whole lot of talk at the government level to remove that ban from the Swedes. And the Minister just came out over the last week again and reaffirmed that. So that's a massive option on that change.

And then the fourth leg is we have a joint venture project, a gold project in Sweden where we made a very good early stage discovery there. So there's value, we think, in all the parts, perhaps separately rather than together. So we're working at articulating that value and working through the process as we speak.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, exciting times. Congrats to the team at Southern Cross. Congrats to the team at Mawson. Obviously a lot of synergies between the two groups. And I can't wait for the 18 assays that are pending. I'm looking forward to having you back on, Mike.

Michael Hudson: There's a lot more than 18 assays, but 18 holes, Gerardo. And keep your eye on the news flow. There's always news flow coming from Sunday Creek.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Thanks again.

Michael Hudson: Thanks mate.

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