Mawson Gold (TSX: MAW)(OTC: MWSNF) – currently trading just below C$0.40 per share – has released a brand new set of assays from the Joki East target at its 100%-owned Rajapalot Gold Project, Finland — showing high-grade gold-cobalt mineralization.
Highlights from the current release include 5.5 meters at 6.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 732 ppm cobalt from 220.9 meters; including 1.0 meter at 25.4 g/t gold and 617 ppm cobalt from 223.8 meters.
Mawson chairman & CEO, Michael Hudson, commented via press release:
“Joki East continues to deliver high grades of both gold and cobalt with increased confidence of continuity with further 60-metre stepouts reported here. The consistency of high-grade mineralization and the increasing widths down plunge are encouraging. We have remobilized a drill rig back to Joki East, as part of our large 18-kilometre winter drill program, and look forward to further results as they come to hand.”
A couple of key takeaways from the release...
First, by way of these step-out drill holes, the Mawson field team is beginning to see continuity in the occurrences of high-grade gold-cobalt mineralization throughout the system. That’s important as it points to the mineralized system as being a coherent body, which can go a long way in future drilling, mapping, and mine plan development.
Second, the assays reveal a significant cobalt kicker to the main attraction that is the high-grade gold. That makes the project one of only a handful of 43-101 compliant cobalt resources on the European continent, which, in turn, makes it a strategic project for the country of Finland with the Finnish government investing heavily in green-energy elements such as cobalt.
Needless to say… it’s an exciting time to be a Mawson Gold shareholder. And as always, we’ll continue to keep you up-to-date on the company’s multiple gold projects on multiple continents as we head into 2021. MAW / MWSNF shareholders can reasonably expect increased market attention beginning early next year as the company will have a total of 4 rigs drilling in Finland plus 2 rigs drilling in Victoria, Australia.
And that’s not even taking into account the company’s no-risk, fully-funded exploratory drill program at Mount Isa in Queensland, Australia, which we discussed in detail in our previous Mawson alert.
Our own Gerardo Del Real of Junior Resource Monthlysat down with Mawson CEO, Michael Hudson, to discuss Rajapalot as a strategic gold-cobalt project for Finland plus a quick check on forthcoming drill results from the company’s Redcastle and Sunday Creek gold projects in Victoria, Australia.
Mawson Gold (TSX: MAW)(OTC: MWSNF) CEO, Michael Hudson, on High-Grade Gold-Cobalt Intercepts from Joki East Target, Rajapalot 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 have you been?
Michael Hudson: I'm pretty good — thanks, Gerardo! Finding gold and getting out in the field as a geologist. And people are rewarding exploration across the board – and what more could I want?
Gerardo Del Real: You're finding gold; you're finding high-grade gold. You've added cobalt to the headline here this go around. And you're also mobilizing a drill rig and will be mobilizing three additional drill rigs in addition to the one that is now mobilized.
A lot going on… and this is just Finland! This doesn't even touch on everything you have happening in Australia. Let's start with the release. Would you like to provide some context and an overview of the news today?
Michael Hudson: The result that was the headline result was 5.5 meters at 6.9 grams [per tonne gold] and 732 PPM cobalt that included a meter at 25.4 grams [per tonne] gold at Joki East in Finland.
Now, Joki East is a brand new virgin discovery we made over the last few months. We put 8 holes into it. These were the last batch of holes that came back. There were two new holes released here, both had gold, and they were the deepest holes in the system.
And now we've drilled it over something like a few hundred meters down-plunge. It's open in all directions. It's incredibly high-grade; thin but high-grade is how it's panned out so far but we're seeing sort of a meter and a half at 20 to 30 grams.
Interestingly, though, this last result was over 5.5 meters that I just mentioned. So it had the high-grade hit in it but the zone is getting wider — and that's always good. It's changing its form, maintaining its grade, and open everywhere.
And we put a drill rig back on this project in the last few days. And that will be 1 of 4 rigs that drill out 20 kilometers over the next three or four months on this developing resource story we've got here in Finland.
Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned the widths, and you also mentioned the consistency of the high-grade mineralization. That's important moving forward because, though it's early stage at this target… eventually, if we're going to work this into a mine plan — you need those widths that are minable, correct?
Michael Hudson: Well, absolutely. But a meter and a half at 25 grams is okay. That will fit into ... potentially, like I can't talk around future mining and the economics of it, Gerardo, because we haven't done any of the studies. But if you look around at all of the analogs… that works in many mines around the world without a doubt.
So grade and continuity; if you've got high-grades, the continuity of it is really important. And we've seen that over many, many, many drill holes in this system. I think 6 of the 8 have had nice hits; or 5 of the 8 actually had the high-grade hits.
And this was a virgin discovery with not one other drill hole in it. Interestingly – we've talked about it in this release – I think it's interesting for your listeners: we ran a geophysical technique called Mise-a-la-masse. And Mise-a-la-masse is one of the oldest geophysical techniques that is known. It's basically putting a copper pipe down into the mineralization in the drill hole. So we lower it down on a cable. We put some charge
into it, and that charges up the mineralization. And then we run over and measure the potential changes of the field at-surface. And we can see where that mineralization from the drill hole extends back to the surface.
And if the mineralization is chopped up with faults — we won't see anything. If it's continuous and it's one body, we'll measure it around the surface and coming up from the drill hole at-depth. And that's what we saw… that the mineralization is a coherent body. And that gave us a whole lot of confidence that we're dealing with a system here that had continuity.
As much as the drill holes demonstrated that, you never really know until you can start putting other measurements and estimates on what you're dealing with. This is outside of our winter-only drill area.
This is a project that we'll put a few more holes into and then we'll go into the winter areas. And then, it's all go. It’s the major drill season and everyone's poised in Finland for a massive, massive drill program really. There's not too many this size in a junior in any company let alone on one project for a three or four month period.
Gerardo Del Real: You've also announced further cobalt assays adding to previously released gold-only assays. And from the release, they show universal cobalt enrichment. This is important moving forward; again looking down the road because, permitting-wise, we know that critical metals are being viewed in a very favorable light by governments around the world as
people start to acknowledge the importance of these metals, correct?
Michael Hudson: Yeah. I often say that gold is the key economic element here. That's the main payable. But cobalt is about 10% to 15% in-situ value to the mineralization. But it's the cobalt that will really help get this project developed because it creates what is now a strategic project for Finland and for Europe.
The Finland government just announced, relatively recently, a $450 million stimulus investment into the state mining company, the Finnish Minerals Group, to build out their battery supply chain, which they're hugely into already on a worldwide basis. They produce something like 10% of refined cobalt globally out of the largest cobalt refinery in the world which sits 400 kilometers south of this project. So they want to entrench themselves even further in that
supply chain.
The irony is that the majority of that feedstock comes into that refinery from the Congo; 90 plus percent. Having something locally in Finland, let alone in Europe… This is one of a handful of projects in Europe that is a compliant cobalt resource — a 43-101 compliant cobalt resource.
It is a key element… no pun intended!
Gerardo Del Real: I have to ask you about Australia. You've had very, very good early success there on multiple projects. How are things progressing there?
Michael Hudson: We had a little bit of a slowdown in the lab. It's easy to blame the lab, but that's not the case of them blaming the lab. But just the overflow of samples that have come into Victoria has slowed things down a little in terms of news flow there.
So this Joki East discovery has sort of been keeping the news flow going over the last month or so. But we've got imminent results from both Sunday Creek and Red Castle to put to the market in the coming weeks.
Gerardo Del Real: I'd wish you a Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas — but I suspect I may be chatting with you beforehand.
Michael Hudson: That we will, that we will, Gerardo! Wish you and your readers the same.
Gerardo Del Real: Mike, thank you so much. Anything else that you'd like to add to that?
Michael Hudson: No, thank you Gerardo. Thanks for your support during the year, and onwards and upwards for gold and Mawson into 2021.
Gerardo Del Real: Thanks for continuing to find gold seemingly everywhere!
Michael Hudson: Gold is where you find it!
Gerardo Del Real: Thanks again, Mike.
Michael Hudson: Thanks, Gerardo.
Mike Fagan has mining in his blood. As a teenager he staked countless gold and silver properties in Nevada alongside his dad, Brian Fagan, who created the Prospect Generator model that’s still widely used today in the resource space. One of those staking projects was put into production by a major Canadian mining company — a truly rare and profitable experience. That background uniquely qualifies him as a mining stock speculator. One of the most well-known names in the
business, Mike is now putting that experience to use for the benefit of Resource Stock Digest and Hard Asset Digest readers.
