News

Vancouver, Canada — Mawson Gold Limited (“Mawson” or the “Company”) (TSX:MAW) (Frankfurt:MXR) (PINKSHEETS: MWSNF) announces further high-grade mineralization and two new vein sets from four drill holes (SDDSC083, 86, 89 and 90) between the historic Golden Dyke and Christina mining areas, at the Sunday Creek Project in Victoria, Australia, owned 100% by Southern Cross Gold Ltd. (“Southern Cross Gold” or “SXG”) (Figure 5). 
Sunday Creek is 100% owned by Southern Cross Gold (“SXG”), which is an ASX listed company owned 51% by Mawson. Four rigs continue to drill in the main drill area at Sunday Creek where 16 holes (SDDSC092-106, 109) are currently being geologically processed and chemically analyzed, and four holes (SDDSC0107, 108A, 110, 111) are in drill progress (Figures 1-3).   

Highlights:

• High-grade mineralization within two new vein sets have been drilled up to 250 m west and down to 240 m vertically below surface in a previously undrilled area between the historic Golden Dyke and Christina mining areas:
  • Drilled footprint of mineralization now extends more than 1.1 km in core area.
  • Results demonstrate further vein sets and the potential for multiple repeats and extensions of vein sets at depth in undrilled areas from the western most drilling at Rising Sun (SDDSC082) to Christina within a 700 m undrilled area (Figure 3).
• Highlights include:
  • SDDSC086 (150 m west of previous drilling):
    • 2.8 m @ 7.4 g/t AuEq (4.4 g/t Au, 1.9% Sb) from 252.7 m, including:
      • 0.5 m @ 38.4 g/t AuEq (22.1 g/t Au, 10.3% Sb) from 252.7 m
    • 3.1 m @ 21.3 g/t AuEq (20.6 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 266.5 m, including:
      • 1.8 m @ 35.3 g/t AuEq (34.5 g/t Au, 0.5% Sb) from 266.5 m
  • SDDSC090 (250 m west of previous drilling):        
    • 9.8 m @ 4.6 g/t AuEq (4.0 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 346.9 m, including:
      • 2.2 m @ 12.7 g/t AuEq (11.0 g/t Au, 1.1% Sb) from 347.6 m
• A further two holes are reported, SDDSC083 drilled between mineralized veins sets, hit a broad low-grade “near miss”. SDDSC089, drilled 100 m below and 30 m NW of SDDSC086 intersected a lower grade along strike halo from SDDSC086. Highlights included 1.5 m @ 2.3 g/t AuEq (2.3 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 334.1 m. With only four holes drilled, most of the mineralized host in this area remains untested.
• Mawson owns 93,750,000 shares of SXG (51%), valuing its stake at A$90.0 million (C$81.0 million) based on SXG’s closing price on November 29, 2023 AEST.

Noora Ahola, Mawson Interim CEO, states: “The team at Southern Cross Gold just provided an important proof of concept of extension of mineralization to the west of the main drill area at Sunday Creek.  The area between Golden Dyke and the historic Christina mine has never been tested by drilling and this initial campaign has been successful in finding two new high grade vein sets.

With SDDSC090 hitting grades up to 0.4 m @ 42.6 g/t Au 250 m to the west of previous drilling, SXG has extended the strike of known mineralization by 29% to 1,100 m.  This sub region within the main drill area is completely open hundreds of metres to the west and to depth given the vertical continuity of the vein sets discovered at Rising Sun and Apollo.

We are very excited about this new mineralized zone that offers so much potential.”

Results Discussion

Four drill holes (SDDSC083, 86, 89 and 90) have been drilled for the first time between the historic Golden Dyke and Christina mining areas.  The holes were drilled across the targeted mineralized host (determining the extent of the rails of “the ladder”) and demonstrated high-grade mineralization within veins sets (“rungs of the ladder”) up to 250 m west of previous drilling.

SDDSC086, drilled 150 m west of previous drilling, intersected:

• 2.8 m @ 7.4 g/t AuEq (4.4 g/t Au, 1.9% Sb) from 252.7 m, including:
  • 0.5 m @ 38.4 g/t AuEq (22.1 g/t Au, 10.3% Sb) from 252.7 m
• 3.1 m @ 21.3 g/t AuEq (20.6 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 266.5 m, including:
  • 1.8 m @ 35.3 g/t AuEq (34.5 g/t Au, 0.5% Sb) from 266.5 m

SDDSC090, drilled 250 m west of previous drilling, intersected:    

• 0.3 m @ 2.5 g/t AuEq (1.7 g/t Au, 0.5% Sb) from 342.9 m
• 9.8 m @ 4.6 g/t AuEq (4.0 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 346.9 m, including:
  • 2.2 m @ 12.7 g/t AuEq (11.0 g/t Au, 1.1% Sb) from 347.6 m
  • 0.7 m @ 8.0 g/t AuEq (7.5 g/t Au, 0.3% Sb) from 352.6 m

SDDSC091 traversed across a single high-grade vein set and is a 100 m up-dip extension from an intersection in drill hole SDDSC077B (6.5 m @ 10.2 g/t AuEq), previously announced on September 5, 2023 (Figures 1-4). The individual vein set, RS50, intersected in SDDSC083 is 11.6 m wide (estimated true width), 60 m strike extent currently defined and extends over 500 m down dip and remains open (Figure 4).  It is one of 23 vein sets defined to date at Sunday Creek with the system open in all directions (Figures 4 and 5).

Additionally, a further two holes (SDDSC083, SDDSC089) are reported (Figures 1 - 3). SDDSC083, drilled immediately on the western end of the Golden Dyke historic mine drilled between mineralized veins sets and hit a broad low grade “near miss” through the mineralized host. SDDSC089, drilled 100 m below and 30 m NW of SDDSC086 intersected a lower grade along strike halo from SDDSC086. Highlights included 1.5 m @ 2.3 g/t AuEq (2.3 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 334.1 m. With only four holes drilled, the majority of the mineralized host in this area remains untested (Figure 2).

Pending Results and Update

With four diamond drill rigs operating at site, and A$11.8M cash (as of August 31, 2023) Southern Cross Gold has stated that it anticipates drilling an additional 19,000 m by April 2024.

Cumulatively, 182 drill holes for 48,492 m have been completed at Sunday Creek. Sixteen holes (SDDSC092-106, 109) of those holes are currently being processed and analyzed, with four additional holes (SDDSC107, 108A, 110, 111) currently in progress (Figures 1 and 3).

Further discussion and analysis of the Sunday Creek project by Southern Cross Gold is available on the SXG website at www.southerncrossgold.com.au.

No upper gold grade cut is applied in the averaging and intervals are reported as drill thickness. During future Mineral Resource studies, the requirement for assay top cutting will be assessed.

Figures 1-5 show project location, plan, longitudinal and cross-sectional views of drill results reported here and Tables 1- 3 provide collar and assay data. The true thickness of the mineralized intervals reported are interpreted to be approximately 60% to 70% of the sampled thickness. Lower grades were cut at 1.0 g/t Au lower cutoff over a maximum width of 2 m with higher grades cut at 5.0 g/t Au lower cutoff over a maximum of 1 m width, unless otherwise stated.

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.

MAW considers that both gold and antimony that are included in the gold equivalent calculation (“AuEq") have reasonable potential to be recovered at Sunday Creek, given current geochemical understanding, historic production statistics and geologically analogous mining operations. Historically, ore from Sunday Creek was treated onsite or shipped to the Costerfield mine, located 54 km to the northwest of the project, for processing during WW1. The Costerfield mine corridor, now owned by Mandalay Resources Ltd contains two million ounces of equivalent gold (Mandalay Q3 2021 Results), and in 2020 was the sixth highest-grade global underground mine and a top 5 global producer of antimony.

SXG considers that it is appropriate to adopt the same gold equivalent variables as Mandalay Resources Ltd in its Mandalay Technical Report, 2022 dated March 25, 2022. The gold equivalence formula used by Mandalay Resources was calculated using recoveries achieved at the Costerfield Property Brunswick Processing Plant during 2020, using a gold price of US$1,700 per ounce, an antimony price of US$8,500 per tonne and 2021 total year metal recoveries of 93% for gold and 95% for antimony, and is as follows: