News

Multiple High-Grade Structures Extend Mineralization
Announces 60 km Drill Program Over Coming Year

Vancouver, Canada — Mawson Gold Limited (“Mawson” or the “Company”) (TSXV:MAW) (Frankfurt:MXR) (PINKSHEETS: MWSNF) announces Southern Cross Gold Ltd. (“Southern Cross Gold” or “SXG”) has released results from two diamond drillholes from the Rising Sun prospect at its 100%-owned Sunday Creek Project in Victoria, Australia (Figures 1 to 6). Both holes intersected multiple high-grade structures and were successful in extending mineralization beyond the bounds of the modelled mineralized domains as well as defining continuity in other areas.   

Michael Hudson, Mawson Executive Chairman, states: “Sunday Creek continues to produce impressive news, release after release. Today’s announcement discloses another set of extremely strong high-grade drill results from the Rising Sun project area. The holes were successful on multiple fronts as they extend mineralization beyond the bounds of the exploration target area as well as define continuity in other areas.

“Both holes reported here also each delivered a >100 g/t AuEq x m intersection.  The project now contains a total of thirty-eight (38) of these significant hits. Importantly, the frequency of these significant hits continues to increase as we drill towards depth and understand the controls on high-grade mineralization better (Figure 7).

“With a 60 km drill program set to more than double the drill metres into the Sunday Creek project over the next year, SXG will expand this globally significant gold discovery via logical step outs along strike to increase volume along with the start of detailed controlled downhole NAVI-drilling program that aims to target continuity of super high-grade areas.

“Additionally, planning for a regional scale IP geophysical survey is underway that will test the 10 km long trend along strike from the core drilled area to further demonstrate the district scale potential of Sunday Creek.”

Drill Hole Discussion

Two drillholes (SDDSC115A and 117) are reported from the Rising Sun prospect. Both holes intersected high-grade structures, extending mineralization beyond the bounds of the modelled mineralized domains as well as reinforcing continuity in other areas.

SDDSC115A was designed to test the footwall position of two high-grade vein sets and intercepted 11 mineralized structures, five of which are high-grade. This hole contains six assayed intervals of > 50 g/t Au (up to 202 g/t Au), and five assayed intervals > 5% Sb (up to 26.3% Sb).  The hole traversed through the centre of the dyke/breccia host and provided continuity information in the plane of the 11 vein sets. High-grade continuity is well demonstrated in vein set RS55_L (Figure 3) where SDDSC115A drilled 3.2 m (ETW 2.5 m) @ 48.2 g/t AuEq (45.3 g/t Au, 1.5% Sb) from 643.4m (2 m @ 0.5 g/t Au lower cut) including 1.3 m @ 90.2 g/t AuEq from 643.4 m and 0.3 m @ 116.1 g/t AuEq from 646.3 m, which was located 68 m down-plunge of previously reported SDDSC107 (4.7 m @ 76.6 g/t AuEq), suggesting the possibility of a new high-grade mineralized domain.

Highlights from SDDSC115A include:

• 0.2 m @ 13.5 g/t AuEq (12.8 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 455.9 m
• 5.5 m @ 1.7 g/t AuEq (0.8 g/t Au, 0.5% Sb) from 512.4 m, including:
  • 0.3 m @ 6.1 g/t AuEq (2.4 g/t Au, 2.0% Sb) from 517.6 m
• 1.5 m @ 12.4 g/t AuEq (10.6 g/t Au, 1.0% Sb) from 532.6 m including:
  • 1.2 m @ 15.3 g/t AuEq (13.2 g/t Au, 1.1% Sb) from 533.0 m
• 3.3 m @ 6.4 g/t AuEq (2.6 g/t Au, 2.0% Sb) from 563.6 m including:
  • 0.8 m @ 6.7 g/t AuEq (5.1 g/t Au, 0.9% Sb) from 563.6 m
  • 1.2 m @ 11.3 g/t AuEq (3.1 g/t Au, 4.4% Sb) from 565.7 m
• 0.2 m @ 25.9 g/t AuEq (15.4 g/t Au, 5.6% Sb) from 573.7 m
• 10.4 m @ 3.0 g/t AuEq (1.2 g/t Au, 1.0% Sb) from 580.0 m, including:
  • 0.3 m @ 53.8 g/t AuEq (13.9 g/t Au, 21.2% Sb) from 580.2 m
  • 0.2 m @ 7.2 g/t AuEq (3.1 g/t Au, 2.2% Sb) from 587.7 m
• 3.2 m @ 48.2 g/t AuEq (45.3 g/t Au, 1.5% Sb) from 643.4m (ETW 2.5 m), including:
  • 1.3 m @ 90.2 g/t AuEq (84.9 g/t Au, 2.8% Sb) from 643.4 m
  • 0.3 m @ 116.1 g/t AuEq (109.0 g/t Au, 3.8% Sb) from 646.3 m
• 0.3 m @ 87.2 g/t AuEq (86.4 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 707.7 m
• 0.1 m @ 95.3 g/t AuEq (87.1 g/t Au, 4.3% Sb) from 719.5 m
• 3.4 m @ 2.8 g/t AuEq (2.7 g/t Au, 0.1% Sb) from 746.0 m, including:
  • 0.3 m @ 15.4 g/t AuEq (15.3 g/t Au, 0.1% Sb) from 747.3 m
• 3.8 m @ 4.0 g/t AuEq (3.2 g/t Au, 0.5% Sb) from 874.3 m, including:
  • 0.4 m @ 12.9 g/t AuEq (12.9 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 875.6 m

SDDSC117 was designed to test the strike continuity of two high-grade targets in the footwall of the mineralized host and intercepted seven mineralized structures. This hole contains 3 assayed intervals of > 20 g/t Au (up to 473.0 g/t Au). SDDSC117 drilled along the footwall contact at a high intersection angle to mineralized vein sets. The high-grade intercept in the RS110 location (0.5 m @ 473.1 g/t AuEq) highlights the potential for high grade internal shoots and linking features within known planes of mineralization. Highlights from SDDSC117 include:

• 13.3 m @ 1.2 g/t AuEq (0.6 g/t Au, 0.3% Sb) from 606.6 m, including:
  • 0.2 m @ 7.9 g/t AuEq (0.9 g/t Au, 3.7% Sb) from 606.6 m
• 3.5 m @ 1.4 g/t AuEq (0.6 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 644.4 m
• 0.5 m @ 6.0 g/t AuEq (3.6 g/t Au, 1.3% Sb) from 652.1 m
• 2.0 m @ 5.6 g/t AuEq (5.6 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 715.4 m
• 8.7 m @ 4.1 g/t AuEq (3.5 g/t Au, 0.3% Sb) from 741.9 m, including:
  • 1.1 m @ 21.5 g/t AuEq (20.9 g/t Au, 0.3% Sb) from 745.8 m
• 0.5 m @ 473.1 g/t AuEq (473.0 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 913.6 m
• 2.5 m @ 2.4 g/t AuEq (2.4 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 934.7 m, including:
  • 0.2 m @ 11.3 g/t AuEq (11.3 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 934.7 m
  • 0.4 m @ 9.1 g/t AuEq (9.1 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 936.8 m

Pending Results and Update

Seven holes (SDDSC114W1, 118, 119, 119W1, 120, 121, 123) are currently being processed and analyzed, with four holes (SDDSC121W1, 122, 124, 125) in progress (Figures 1 and 2).

Increasing Drilling Program

The SXG Board has approved plans to drill 60 km over the next year, with the fifth drill rig to commence within weeks and a sixth rig to arrive during September 2024.

Over the next week SXG will commence a NAVI drilling program.  NAVI drilling is a specialized drilling application utilizing down hole motors to make alterations to the direction of a diamond core drill hole. Detailed drilling (at approximately 20 m spacing) will be undertaken around super high-grade areas with the aim to build further confidence of grade continuity between high-grade intersections by drilling branch holes off an already drilled ‘parent hole’.

Regional Programs

A large regional induced polarization survey over the 10km district-scale strike is now being planned to test the regional trend beyond the core drill area at Sunday Creek.  The survey is planned to start in September 2024.

Further Information

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 to 6 show project location, plan and longitudinal views of drill results reported here and Tables 1 to 3 provide collar and assay data. The true thickness of the mineralised intervals reported individually as estimated true widths (“ETW”), otherwise they are interpreted to be approximately 60-70% of the sampled thickness for other reported holes. Lower grades were cut at 1.0 g/t AuEq 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 specified.

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.

MAW considers that it is appropriate to adopt the same gold equivalent variables as Mandalay Resources Ltd in its Mandalay Technical Report, 2024 dated March 28, 2024. The gold equivalence formula used by Mandalay Resources was calculated using Costerfield’s 2023 production costs, using a gold price of US$1,900 per ounce, an antimony price of US$12,000 per tonne and 2023 total year metal recoveries of 94% for gold and 89% for antimony, and is as follows:

AuEq = Au (g/t) + 1.88 x Sb (%).

Based on the latest Costerfield calculation and given the similar geological styles and historic toll treatment of Sunday Creek mineralization at Costerfield, SXG considers that a AuEq = Au (g/t) + 1.88 x Sb (%) is appropriate to use for the initial exploration targeting of gold-antimony mineralization at Sunday Creek.

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

Mawson Gold Limited has distinguished itself as a leading Nordic exploration company.  Over the last decades, the team behind Mawson has forged a long and successful record of discovering, financing, and advancing mineral projects in the Nordics and Australia. Mawson holds the Skellefteå North gold discovery and a portfolio of historic uranium resources in Sweden.  Mawson also holds 51% of Southern Cross Gold Ltd. (ASX:SXG) which owns or controls three high-grade, historic epizonal goldfields covering 470 km² in Victoria, Australia, including the exciting Sunday Creek Au-Sb discovery. 

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 joint venture in Victoria, Australia, and a strategic 10% holding in ASX-listed Nagambie Resources Limited (ASX:NAG) which grants SXG a Right of First Refusal over a 3,300 square kilometer 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 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 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, 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 SEDAR+. 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.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Figure 1: Sunday Creek plan view showing SDDSC115A and 117 reported here (blue highlight), selected prior reported drill holes and pending holes.  For location see Figure 5.

Figure 2: Sunday Creek longitudinal section across A-B in the plane of the dyke breccia/altered sediment host (see Figure 1) looking towards the north (striking 236 degrees) showing mineralized veins sets.  Showing SDDSC115A and 117 reported here and prior reported drill holes.

Figure 3: Sunday Creek longitudinal section across C-D in the plane of the modelled vein set RS55_L, looking towards the north-east (striking 139.9 degrees).  Showing SDDSC115A and 117 (orange trace) reported here and prior reported drill holes.

Figure 4: Sunday Creek longitudinal section across E-F in the plane of the modelled vein set RS110, looking towards the north-east (striking 134.7 degrees).  Showing SDDSC115A and 117 (orange trace) reported here and prior reported drill holes.

Figure 5: Sunday Creek regional plan view showing LiDAR, soil sampling, structural framework, regional historic epizonal gold mining areas and broad regional areas (Tonstal, Consols and Leviathan) tested by 12 holes for 2,383 m drill program.  The regional drill areas are at Tonstal, Consols and Leviathan located 4,000-7,500 m along strike from the main drill area at Golden Dyke-Apollo.

Figure 6: Location of the Sunday Creek project, along with SXG’s other Victoria projects and simplified geology.

Figure 7: Sunday Creek drilling analysis showing metres drilled and planned and the increasing strike rate. Cumulatively, 119 drill holes for 51,189 m have been reported by SXG (and Mawson Gold Ltd) from Sunday Creek since late 2020. A total of 64 historic drill holes for 5,599 m were completed from the late 1960s to 2008. The project now contains a total of thirty-eight (38) >100 g/t AuEq x m and forty-seven (47) >50 to 100 g/t AuEq x m drill holes by applying a 2 m @ 1 g/t lower cut.

Table 1: Drill collar summary table for recent drill holes in progress.

Table 2: Tables of mineralized drill hole intersections reported from SDDSC115A and 117 using two cut-off criteria. Lower grades cut at 1.0 g/t lower cutoff over a maximum of 2 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 SDDSC115A and 117 reported here >0.1g/t AuEq.