Categories: Energy / Precious Metals
Topics: General Energy / General Precious Metals

Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW) CEO Michael Hudson on the Robust and Expandable Maiden Resource at the Rajapalot Gold-Cobalt Project in Finland

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today on his 50th birthday is the Chairman and CEO of Mawson Resources (TSX: MAW)(OTC: MWSNF) – working on your birthday, Mike – Mr. Michael Hudson. How are you, sir?

Michael Hudson: Thank you, Gerardo. I'm very well. How did that happen?

Gerardo Del Real: You know it's a fortunate event if I may say so. Happy Birthday, Mike. I'm impressed that you're in the office and in the field, up and at it on your birthday, so thanks for taking the time today.

Michael Hudson: Always welcome.

Gerardo Del Real: So, big news from Mawson, you clicked off a milestone. You have a constrained gold equivalent inferred mineral resource for your gold-cobalt project in Finland. It comes in at – and let me preface it by saying this is definitely just a start and we'll talk about that – but it's 424,000 gold equivalent ounces in the constrained category. I believe it's 482,000 gold equivalent ounces unconstrained. As important are the grades, which are very, very robust.

Let's start with some of the details, and let's talk about why you feel positive moving forward that you can grow this very robust and this very district-scale system.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo. It is a first up or maiden resource, which is very much a proof of concept or a magnitude study. Importantly, you pointed out the correct things, it is a very good start. Now, from constrained which is putting mining shapes around the source, or unconstrained if it didn't have those mining shapes around it. We're getting closer to that half-million ounce for the unconstrained.

So a very good start, but we can see it getting a lot bigger. This electromagnetic survey that we're undergoing right now, and we can see the resource light up like a Christmas tree. We put electrical currents in the ground and literally the resource, because it's conductive, lights up like a Christmas tree and then those conductors continue at least double the depth below and it's at least double the depth below those resources.

So we'll be drilling beneath those known resources, and our aim is to double the tonnes in a 15-kilometer drill program that we have commencing next month subject of permitting, which is ongoing at the moment. But we anticipate we'll have rigs there by mid to late January. And the other important thing is the grade.  Grade is known to be king, of course, by everybody in the business and it certainly helps to have a very robust grade. And by robust, I mean that the cutoffs actually are quite low here, but the grades are high. And that just shows the robustness of the resource at various metal prices, or cutoffs that we could choose in any future mines to operate at.

It actually holds together rather well. It's a gold and cobalt resource. The cobalt adds about 20% of the value. A first up resource, a new first up resource for Finland. So a very strategic project in that sense and one of the few CIM-compliant cobalt resources in Europe.

Gerardo Del Real: When we talk about the potential for the resource to grow, Agnico Eagle has a project approximately 150 kilometers to the north, I believe, that started in a very similar way. Can you talk about that asset a bit, Mike?

Michael Hudson: Sure, Gerardo. It's very important for people to understand that big assets are built and not found out the gate. And Agnico Eagle's mine, it's called Kittila, is 150 kilometers north of us. A similar type of system, not exactly the same but many geological similarities. That is now greater than a 7 million ounce, 7.4 million ounce system. So big, big, giant. Right? Anything bigger than 5 million ounces can be considered to be a very significant tier 1 asset. And it's Agnico's longest mine life mine in their portfolio.

That was discovered in 1986, and it took 11 years for that asset to have its first maiden resource, which was 285,000 ounces. And then at that point, it pivoted, and they saw what they were onto, they saw that they had a resource that was expandable. A lot more drilling went into the asset, and within a short period of time, in a number of years it grew to a million ounces to 2.4 million ounces and then Agnico bought it from a junior Swedish company and then Agnico put a lot more drilling into it and now it's grown to a greater than 7 million ounce system. So I like to talk about that because it shows just where I think where our project's at.

Now we've been at this as a science experiment, in many ways an R&D experiment from an exploration point of view. Now, we've got the tonnes, we've got the grade, and its coherence stacks together, and we can see it expanding, we can see the expandability visually beneath what we've got already. Our project is pivoting, and with more drilling we can see that growing. You know you can see, I think anyone who puts in a few minutes study on this project will see the opportunity here. We've got immediate drill targets to double it, double the volume around the known resources.

But the average drill hole depth in Rajapalot, the area where we got this 4-kilometer trend already, is less than a 100 meter drill hole depth. We're only testing 20% of the known 4 kilometers yet with this resource, and with 99% covered there'll be more areas found. It's very early days, but a good start.

Gerardo Del Real: Now I understand, Mike, that you plan on testing the system in January. Is that the next stage of drilling that we can expect?

Michael Hudson: We've got 5 rigs ready to be lined up as soon as our permit is renewed. Every two to three years every exploration permit in Finland goes through renewal and that's what's happening to our permit this year. We've got 15 kilometers planned.

Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic. Well, Mike, once the permit is in hand and the rigs start turning, I'd love to have you back on. In the meantime, let me thank you for your time again. Happy birthday. Enjoy it. Thanks for the update, anything else that you'd like to add?

Michael Hudson: No. Just a good start, robust, and expandable.

Gerardo Del Real: Well said. Thanks again, Mike.

Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.

Click here to see more from Mawson Gold Ltd.