News

Vancouver, Canada — Mawson Gold Limited (“Mawson” or the “Company”) (TSX:MAW) (Frankfurt:MXR) reports that its majority-owned Australian subsidiary, Southern Cross Gold Ltd (“SXG”), has reported further results from four drill holes at its 100% owned Sunday Creek property, Victoria, Australia. Mawson owns 60% of SXG following its recent initial public offering (“IPO”) on the Australian Securities Exchange (“ASX”).

Ivan Fairhall, Mawson CEO, states: “Another ‘best to date’ from SXG at Sunday Creek! This time the highest-grade mineralization to date, intersected in a new area at Rising Sun, located 350 metres from the Apollo shoot which included the earlier spectacular result in SDDSC033 of 119m at 3.9 g/t AuEq. Results like this reiterate the quality of SXG’s discovery in Victoria, home to the highest grade and 10^th largest gold mine globally. Mawson remains SXG’s largest shareholder, as it focuses on its upcoming Rajapalot PEA to be released this month, and exploration programs in Finland and Sweden.”

Results Discussion

SXG reports that the developing Rising Sun shoot has now been tested to 260 m vertically below surface with single holes extending mineralization down the axis of the mineralized shoot and in the plane of the 50-100 m wide north dipping host sequence consisting of dioritic dykes and related intrusive breccias. Mineralized shoots at Sunday Creek are formed at the intersection of the sub-vertical to shallower dipping 330 degree striking mineralized veins and host breccia structure.

The Rising Sun shaft extended to 45 m depth below surface from mining in the late 1800s. Drillholes SDDSC043 and SDDSC046 were designed to drill down the dip of the diorite-dyke structure below historic mining and drilling, including VCRC022:

• 2.0 m @ 44.1 g/t AuEq (42.2 g/t Au and 1.0% Sb) from 70.0 m
• 1.0 m @ 20.0 g/t AuEq (16.9 g/t Au and 2.0% Sb) from 80.0 m

SXG drill hole SDDSC046, reported here, drilled 75 m below VCRC022, intersected extremely high-grade intersections of gold-antimony mineralization. The hole is significant as it demonstrates the highest grades of gold seen on the project to date developing in a new area 350 m to the west of the Apollo area. SDDSC046 highlights include:

• 21.5 m @ 15.0 g/t AuEq (12.2 g/t Au and 1.7% Sb) from 183.6 m, including
  • 0.2 m @ 40.4 g/t AuEq (12.7 g/t Au and 17.5% Sb) from 187.5 m
  • 0.3 m @ 11.2 g/t AuEq (1.1 g/t Au and 6.4% Sb) from 191.3 m
  • 0.6 m @ 19.5 g/t AuEq (0.3 g/t Au and 12.2% Sb) from 193.1 m
  • 0.3 m @ 10.1 g/t AuEq (0.6 g/t Au and 6.0% Sb) from 194.8 m
  • 1.1 m @ 21.0 g/t AuEq (5.2 g/t Au and 10.0% Sb) from 196.8 m
  • 2.1 m @ 121.6 g/t AuEq (115.5 g/t Au and 3.9% Sb) from 199.0 m

SXG drill hole SDDSC043, reported here, was drilled 80 m below SDDSC046, and 45 m above MDDSC021 (21.7 m @ 6.2 g/t AuEq) drilled:

• 12.5 m @ 2.4 g/t AuEq (1.1 g/t Au and 0.8% Sb) from 241.0 m including
  • 0.5 m @ 13.7 g/t AuEq (1.8 g/t Au and 7.6% Sb) from 241.4 m
  • 0.8 m @ 6.2 g/t AuEq (2.6 g/t Au and 2.3% Sb) from 243.1 m
  • 2.8 m @ 4.8 g/t AuEq (3.0 g/t Au and 1.1% Sb) from 248.8 m

MDDSC020, drilled between SDDSC043 and SDDSC046 was drilled off the main high grade mineralized trend (as shown in Figures 3 and 5). The hole intersected:

• 15.0 m @ 2.0 g/t AuEq (1.3 g/t Au and 0.4% Sb) from 207.0 m, including
  • 1.0 m @ 8.8 g/t AuEq (8.4 g/t Au and 0.2% Sb) from 207.0 m
  • 0.7 m @ 8.2 g/t AuEq (2.8 g/t Au and 3.5% Sb) from 216.7 m

The deepest hole drilled at Rising Sun to date is MDDSC021, which intersected:

• 21.7 m @ 6.2 g/t AuEq (4.7 g/t Au and 1.0% Sb) from 274.7 m, including
  • 0.4 m @ 177.1 g/t AuEq (145.5 g/t Au and 20.0% Sb) from 277.0 m
  • 1.1 m @ 31.1 g/t AuEq (19.2 g/t Au and 7.5% Sb) from 280.4 m
  • 0.4 m @ 19.8 g/t AuEq (14.7 g/t Au and 3.3% Sb) from 287.4 m

The Rising Sun shoot remains open at depth below MDDSC021 and is currently being tested by drillhole SDDSC050, which remains in progress (Figure 2).

Gold is often visible at Sunday Creek, yet repeatability of gold assays is good throughout the highest-grade samples with no evidence of nuggety gold. For example, half core repeats from SDDSC046 returned 427 g/t Au (laboratory repeat on pulp 411 g/t Au) and 325g/t Au (laboratory repeat 358 g/t Au). Similar repeatability is demonstrated on other high-grade quarter-core and laboratory repeat samples.

Drill hole SDDSC041, also reported here (Figure 2) was drilled at the shallow levels of Rising Sun east of high-grade mineralisation. Minor gold and antimony mineralization was intersected (Table 3).

Drilling in other areas also continued with drillhole SDDSC044, reported here, drilled on the Apollo shoot to infill a gap around two “near miss” holes (MDDSC017 and MDDSC027), and 90 m above MDDSC025 (11.7 m @ 18.0 g/t AuEq, including 0.5 m @ 21.2 g/t AuEq). SDDSC044 was successful and continuity in the Apollo shoot going to depth has been validated. SDDSC044 highlights include:

• 0.5 m @ 11.3 g/t AuEq (11.3 g/t Au) from 172.5 m
• 7.6 m @ 8.3 g/t AuEq (3.8 g/t Au and 2.8% Sb) from 242.3 m, including
  • 1.7 m @ 17.6 g/t AuEq (11.1 g/t Au and 4.1% Sb) from 243.1 m
  • 1.9 m @ 16.6 g/t AuEq (4.1 g/t Au and 7.9% Sb) from 248.0 m
• 0.7 m @ 9.3 g/t AuEq (0.7 g/t Au and 5.5% Sb) from 275.4 m

Drilling with two rigs continues at three locations at Sunday Creek: Apollo, Rising Sun (located 400 m to the west of Apollo) and Golden Dyke (located 700 m west of Apollo). Four holes (SDDSC042, 45, 47, 49, plus one abandoned SDDSC048) have been drilled and are being processed and analysed, with two holes (SDDSC048A, SDDSC050) in progress (Figure 2).

Figures 1-5 show project location and plan, longitudinal and cross section views of drill results reported here, and Tables 1–3 provide collar and assay data. The true thickness of the mineralized intervals is interpreted to be approximately 60-70% of the sampled thickness of high-grade mineralization. All drill results quoted have a lower cut of 0.3 g/t Au cut over a 3.0 m width, with higher grades reported with a 5 g/t Au cut over 1.0 m.

Geological and Scale Comparison to Other Victorian Epizonal Deposits

SXG considers Sunday Creek to have the potential to be a truly significant exploration discovery in Victoria with seventeen (17) >100 cumulative grade x metres (“AuEq g/t x m”) holes now intersected.

Sunday Creek has a 10 km mineralized trend that extends beyond the drill area and is defined by historic workings and soil sampling which have yet to receive any exploration drilling and offers potential future upside.

The Sunday Creek epizonal-style gold project is located 60 km north of Melbourne within 19,365 hectares of granted exploration tenements. SXG is also the freehold landholder of 132.64 hectares that forms the key portion in and around the drilled area at the Sunday Creek Project.

Geologically, the project is located within the Melbourne Structural Zone in the Lachlan Fold Belt. The regional host to the Sunday Creek mineralization is an interbedded turbidite sequence of siltstones, minor sandstones metamorphosed to sub-greenschist facies and folded into a set of open NW trending folds. Mineralization at Sunday Creek is controlled by veining, stibnite-gold-matrix breccias and brittle faults. The immediate host for mineralization is a zone of intensely altered white mica-pyritic siltstones, and white mica-pyrite-carbonate altered dyke rocks.

As is typical for epizonal deposits like Fosterville and Costerfield, gold (locally visible) at Sunday Creek is hosted in quartz and carbonate veins, with a later intense stibnite-bearing vein and breccia overprint. A larger arsenic anomaly is associated with the gold mineralization, mostly represented by arsenian-pyrite but developing to arsenopyrite-bearing zones with a clear spatial relationship to high-grade gold.

Additional information may be found in Southern Cross’ news release dated 4^th October, and on its website at www.southerncrossgold.com.au.

Technical Background and Qualified Person

The Qualified Person, Michael Hudson, Executive Chairman and a director of Mawson Gold, and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, has reviewed, verified and approved the technical contents of this release.

Analytical samples are transported to the Bendigo facility of On Site Laboratory Services (“On Site”) which operates under both an ISO 9001 and NATA quality systems. Samples were prepared and analyzed for gold using the fire assay technique (PE01S method; 25 gram charge), followed by measuring the gold in solution with flame AAS equipment. Samples for multi-element analysis (BM011 and over-range methods as required) use aqua regia digestion and ICP-MS analysis. The QA/QC program of Southern Cross Gold consists of the systematic insertion of certified standards of known gold content, blanks within interpreted mineralized rock and quarter core duplicates. In addition, On Site inserts blanks and standards into the analytical process.

Gold equivalent “AuEq” for Sunday Creek is = Au (g/t) + 1.58 x Sb (%) based on assumed prices of gold US$1,700/oz Au and antimony US$8,500/metal tonne, and total year metal recoveries of 93% for gold and 95% for antimony. Given the geological similarities of the projects, this formula has been adopted to align to TSX listed Mandalay Resources Ltd Technical Report dated 25 March 2022 on its Costerfield project, which is located 54 km from Sunday Creek and which historically processed mineralization from the property.

About Mawson Gold Limited (TSX:MAW, FRANKFURT:MXR, OTCPINK:MWSNF)

Mawson Gold Limited is an exploration and development company with its flagship Rajapalot gold-cobalt project in Finland now entering technical study stages to de-risk its inferred resource and exploration growth program. Alongside ongoing exploration at Rajapalot, Mawson holds an option to earn up to 85% in the Skelleftea Gold Project in Sweden. Mawson also has a significant majority interest in the ownership or joint venture into three high-grade, historic epizonal goldfields covering 470 km² in Victoria, Australia, through Southern Cross Gold Ltd. (“Southern Cross”), which shares have successfully listed on the ASX. Mawson currently holds 60% ownership interest in Southern Cross, which is escrowed until May 16, 2024.

About Southern Cross Gold Ltd (ASX:SXG)

Southern Cross Gold holds the 100%-owned Sunday Creek project in Victoria and Mt Isa project in Queensland, the Redcastle and Whroo joint ventures in Victoria, Australia, and a strategic 10% holding in ASX-listed Nagambie Resources Limited (ASX:NAG) which grants Southern Cross a Right of First Refusal over a 3,300 square kilometre tenement package held by NAG in Victoria.

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). All statements herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Although Mawson believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate, and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Mawson cautions investors that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, Mawson’s expectations regarding its ownership interest in Southern Cross Gold, capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates, changes in world metal markets, changes in equity markets, the potential impact of epidemics, pandemics or other public health crises, including the current pandemic known as COVID-19 on the Company’s business, risks related to negative publicity with respect to the Company or the mining industry in general; exploration potential being conceptual in nature, there being insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on the Australian-projects owned by SXG, and uncertainty if further exploration will result in the determination of a mineral resource; planned drill programs and results varying from expectations, delays in obtaining results, equipment failure, unexpected geological conditions, local community relations, dealings with non-governmental organizations, delays in operations due to permit grants, environmental and safety risks, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Mawson's most recent Annual Information Form filed on www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Mawson disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

Figure 1: Location of the Sunday Creek project, along with SXG’s other Victoria projects.

Figure 2: Sunday Creek plan view showing locations of drillholes for results reported in this announcement and pending holes.

Figure 3: Sunday Creek longitudinal section of Rising Sun shoot looking towards 100 degrees showing drillholes SDDSC041/43/46 reported here (100 m wide)

Figure 4: Sunday Creek Apollo longitudinal section of main Apollo shoot looking towards 300 degrees showing drillhole SDDSC040 reported here (30 m wide)

Figure 5: Sunday Creek east-west longitudinal section looking towards 000, along the trend of the dyke/structure showing individual shoots defined to date.

Photos 1,2, 3: Selected quartz carbonate veining and stockwork zone with abundant visible gold from 199.0-199.4 m (assayed 380.3g/t Au and 0.24% Sb) in drillhole SDDSC046 from the Rising Sun shoot. Brecciated gold-mineralized wall rocks are healed by quartz-carbonate veining and commonly have a halo of disseminated arsenopyrite and pyrite in the walls, extending for up to 50 cm beyond the veins. This is similar to other epizonal deposits such as Fosterville.

Table 1: Drill collar summary table for drillholes reported in this announcement (including in progress).

Table 2: Tables of mineralized drill hole intersections reported in this announcement using two cut-off criteria. Lower grades cut at 0.3 g/t lower cutoff over a maximum of 3 m with higher grades cut at 5.0 g/t AuEq cutoff over a maximum of 1 m

Table 3: All individual assays reported from SDDSC037/40 in this announcement >0.1g/t AuEq.