VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 13, 2024 / Mawson Gold Limited ("Mawson" or the "Company") (TSXV:MAW, Financial)(Frankfurt:MXR)(PINKSHEETS:MWSNF) announces Southern Cross Gold Ltd. ("Southern Cross Gold" or "SXG") has released results from five navigational diamond drill holes (SDDSC050W1, 050W2, 092W1, 092W2 and 092W3) at the Rising Sun prospect, at the 100%-owned Sunday Creek Gold-Antimony Project in Victoria (Figure 5).
Highlights:
The NAVI drill program successfully demonstrated:
Predictability of structure: mineralised vein sets were intercepted as planned.
Predictability of grade: The Coefficient of Variation ("CV") maintained a consistently low value before and after detailed drilling in each vein set, providing confidence in the geological model and consistency of grade within the model.
Additional gold-antimony mineralised vein sets were discovered by the detailed drilling.
The successful execution of the detailed drill program demonstrated it will be a key method during future infill drill programs.
SDDSC050W2 successfully confirmed geological and grade continuity of four high-grade vein sets. Selected highlights include:
1.3 m @ 52.6 g/t AuEq (52.6 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 730.0 m
0.1 m @ 173.0 g/t AuEq (173.0 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 739.1 m
SDDSC092W3 intercepted extensive untested mineralisation as well as confirming geological continuity at 15 m to 30 m separation from mineralisation defined in the parent hole. Selected highlights include:
0.6 m @ 10.1 g/t AuEq (6.3 g/t Au, 2.0% Sb) from 636.1 m, including:
0.5 m @ 11.4 g/t AuEq (7.3 g/t Au, 2.1% Sb) from 636.1 m
0.2 m @ 29.8 g/t AuEq (9.1 g/t Au, 11.0% Sb) from 663.1 m
3.4 m @ 3.1 g/t AuEq (0.9 g/t Au, 1.2% Sb) from 666.9 m, including:
0.7 m @ 13.9 g/t AuEq (4.0 g/t Au, 5.3% Sb) from 669.6 m
0.3 m @ 81.4 g/t AuEq (62.2 g/t Au, 10.2% Sb) from 674.3 m
8.5 m @ 1.4 g/t AuEq (0.6 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 683.8 m
1.7 m @ 4.6 g/t AuEq (1.7 g/t Au, 1.5% Sb) from 696.3 m, including:
0.4 m @ 15.8 g/t AuEq (3.8 g/t Au, 6.4% Sb) from 697.6 m
Ongoing Exploration: 60 km of diamond drilling is planned at Sunday Creek over the next year. Twelve holes are currently being processed and analysed with an additional five holes in progress. Five rigs are operating, and a sixth rig is due late November 2024.
Mawson owns 96,590,910 shares of SXG (48.7%), valuing its stake at A$296.5 million (C$270.2 million) based on SXG's closing price on November 12, 2024 AEDT.
Michael Hudson, Mawson Interim CEO and Executive Chairman, states: "Understanding grade continuity is crucial for high-grade gold deposits. The NAVI drill program demonstrated predictability of mineralised structures and showed the CV maintained a consistently low value (~1.6) before and after the detailed NAVI drilling. Low variability or low CV lowers geological risk and reduces the cost of capital, requiring less drilling to provide more confidence in the geological model.
"Additionally, the discovery of new gold-antimony mineralised vein sets intersected by the detailed drill spacing where earlier broader spaced drilling had not previously tested augurs well for discovery of further mineralisation with increased drilling density.
"SXG continues to expand and derisk this globally significant gold discovery with 12 holes currently being processed and analysed, and five holes in progress as part of an ongoing 60 km drill program, that is set to more than double the drill metres into the Sunday Creek project over the next year."
Drill Hole Discussion
SXG commenced the detailed drilling program in June 2024 and announces results from five navigational ("NAVI") diamond drill holes (SDDSC050W1, 050W2, 092W1, 092W2 and 092W3) (Figures 1 to 3). NAVI drilling is a specialised drilling application utilising down hole motors to make alterations to the direction of a diamond core drill hole. Detailed drilling was undertaken around 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'. NAVI drilling also has the advantage of saving drill metres by utilising an existing parent hole.
Five navigational "daughter" holes were drilled at the Rising Sun prospect from existing parent holes (SDDSC050 and SDDSC092). All holes were considered successful in their goal of proving continuity of geology and grade in close spacing (12 m - 25 m) and additionally intercepted grade in previously untested areas.
The NAVI drill program successfully demonstrated:
Predictability of intercepting mineralised veins sets at interpreted positions.
The CV maintained a consistent low value (average of 1.63 (pre NAVI drilling) to 1.65 (post NAVI drilling)) for all of the six veins intersected by the NAVI program (based on uncut, sample composites). This provides confidence in both continuity at all grades and the robustness of the geological model. It also suggests the current broader drill spacing across the Sunday Creek deposit supports the geological/resource modelling assumptions and methodology.
Additional gold-antimony mineralised vein sets were intersected by the detailed drill spacing provided by the NAVI drilling in areas where earlier broader spaced drilling had not previously tested. This augurs well for the discovery of further mineralisation with increased drilling.
The successful execution of the NAVI drill program demonstrated it will be a key method during future infill drill programs.
Holes SDDSC092W1, SDDSC092W2 and SDDSC092W3 were drilled to test up dip extension of mineralisation on the margins of the Golden Orb Fault. SDDSC092W1, SDDSC092W2 drilled through the Golden Orb Fault earlier than predicted and therefore failed to test the Rising Sun mineralisation. However, the holes intercepted high grade gold and antimony mineralisation in a previously undrilled zone before the Rising Sun target area. Drill hole SDDSC092W3, drilled below the Golden Orb Fault, also intercepted the untested mineralisation as well as confirming geological continuity at 15 m to 30 m separation from mineralisation defined in the parent hole.
SDDSC092W1 was collared at 610.1 m and core drilling commenced at 647 m. The drillhole intercepted previously untested mineralisation higher in the hole before intersecting the Golden Orb Fault. Highlights include:
4.0 m @ 6.9 g/t AuEq (5.3 g/t Au, 0.8% Sb) from 648.5 m, including:
1.7 m @ 14.5 g/t AuEq (12.0 g/t Au, 1.3% Sb) from 650.4 m
SDDSC092W2 was collared at 613.5 m down SDDSC092 and core drilling commenced at 648.6 m. This drillhole intercepted untested mineralisation between known vein surfaces and confirmed continuity on the RS90 vein set, 22 m from the parent hole. Highlights include:
1.5 m @ 7.3 g/t AuEq (1.6 g/t Au, 3.0% Sb) from 648.6 m, including:
1.1 m @ 8.8 g/t AuEq (1.8 g/t Au, 3.7% Sb) from 648.6 m
0.2 m @ 31.0 g/t AuEq (31.0 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 701.3 m
4.7 m @ 0.8 g/t AuEq (0.8 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 712.3 m
SDDSC092W3 was collared at 613.5 m and core drilling commenced at 636.1 m. This drillhole intercepted extensive untested mineralisation before the RS80 vein set as well as confirming geological continuity at 15 m to 30 m separation from the parent hole on the RS80 and RS90 vein sets. Highlights include:
0.6 m @ 10.1 g/t AuEq (6.3 g/t Au, 2.0% Sb) from 636.1 m, including:
0.5 m @ 11.4 g/t AuEq (7.3 g/t Au, 2.1% Sb) from 636.1 m
2.0 m @ 1.9 g/t AuEq (0.9 g/t Au, 0.5% Sb) from 658.0 m
0.2 m @ 29.8 g/t AuEq (9.1 g/t Au, 11.0% Sb) from 663.1 m
3.4 m @ 3.1 g/t AuEq (0.9 g/t Au, 1.2% Sb) from 666.9 m, including:
0.7 m @ 13.9 g/t AuEq (4.0 g/t Au, 5.3% Sb) from 669.6 m
0.3 m @ 81.4 g/t AuEq (62.2 g/t Au, 10.2% Sb) from 674.3 m
8.5 m @ 1.4 g/t AuEq (0.6 g/t Au, 0.4% Sb) from 683.8 m
1.7 m @ 4.6 g/t AuEq (1.7 g/t Au, 1.5% Sb) from 696.3 m, including:
0.4 m @ 15.8 g/t AuEq (3.8 g/t Au, 6.4% Sb) from 697.6 m - RS80
Drillholes SDDSC050W1 and SDDSC050W2 were drilled to confirm geological and grade continuity of four high-grade vein sets.
SDDSC050W2 was collared 602 m down SDDSC050 and core return commenced at 657.4 m. This drillhole intercepted four mineralised vein sets at a separation of 29 m to 56 m from the parent hole. Three of the vein sets are high-grade intercepts and all confirm geological and grade continuity. Highlights include:
0.5 m @ 9.1 g/t AuEq (8.7 g/t Au, 0.2% Sb) from 694.1 m - RS80
2.0 m @ 2.5 g/t AuEq (1.4 g/t Au, 0.6% Sb) from 702.0 m
1.3 m @ 52.6 g/t AuEq (52.6 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 730.0 m - RS90
0.1 m @ 173.0 g/t AuEq (173.0 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 739.1 m - RS100
1.0 m @ 4.2 g/t AuEq (4.2 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 743.0 m
SDDSC050W1 was collared 626 m down SDDSC050 and core return commenced at 675.3 m. This drillhole intersected each vein set at lower grades from 12 m, 18 m, 20 m and 28 m of separation from the parent hole on the RS80, RS90, RS100 and RS110L vein sets, respectively, confirming geological continuity. Highlights included 1.2 m @ 1.8 g/t AuEq (1.7 g/t Au, 0.1% Sb) from 736.8 m from vein set RS80.
Pending Results and Update
Twelve holes (SDDSC129, 133, 136, 139-146, 146W1) are currently being processed and analysed, with five holes (SDDSC120W1, 147, 148, 149, 150) in progress (Figure 1 and 2).
Further Information
No upper gold grade cut is applied in the averaging and intervals are reported as drill thickness. However, during future Mineral Resource studies, the requirement for assay top cutting will be assessed. The Company notes that due to rounding of assay results to one significant figure, minor variations in calculated composite grades may occur.
Figures 1 to 5 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 25% to 50% 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 AuEq lower cutoff over a maximum of 1 m width unless specified unless otherwise* specified to demonstrate higher grade assays.
About Sunday Creek
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 133.29 hectares that form the key portion in and around the main drilled area at the Sunday Creek Project.
Gold and antimony form in a relay of vein sets that cut across a steeply dipping zone of intensely altered rocks (the "host"). When observed from above, the host resembles the side rails of a ladder, where the sub-vertical mineralised vein sets are the rungs that extend from surface to depth. At Apollo and Rising Sun these individual ‘rungs' have been defined over 600 m depth extent from surface to 1,100 m below surface, are 2.5 m to 3.5 m wide (median widths) (and up to 10 m), and 20 m to 100 m in strike.
Cumulatively, 146 drill holes for 63,913.89 m have been reported by SXG (and Mawson Gold Ltd) from Sunday Creek since late 2020. An additional 12 holes for 582.55 m from Sunday Creek were abandoned due to deviation or hole conditions. Fourteen drillholes for 2,383 m have been reported regionally outside of the main Sunday Creek drill area. 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 forty-seven (47) >100 g/t AuEq x m and fifty-five (55) >50 to 100 g/t AuEq x m drill holes by applying a 2 m @ 1 g/t lower cut.
Our systematic drill program is strategically targeting these significant vein formations, initially these have been defined over 1,350 m strike of the host from Christina to Apollo prospects, of which approximately 620 m has been more intensively drill tested (Rising Sun to Apollo). At least 64 ‘rungs' have been defined to date, defined by high-grade intercepts (20 g/t to >7,330 g/t Au) along with lower grade edges. Ongoing step-out drilling is aiming to uncover the potential extent of this mineralised system.
Geologically, the project is located within the Melbourne Structural Zone in the Lachlan Fold Belt. The regional host to the Sunday Creek mineralisation is an interbedded turbidite sequence of siltstones and minor sandstones metamorphosed to sub-greenschist facies and folded into a set of open north-west trending folds.
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.
Critical Metal Epizonal Gold-Antimony Deposits
Sunday Creek is an epizonal gold-antimony deposit formed in the late Devonian (like Fosterville, Costerfield and Redcastle), 60 million years later than mesozonal gold systems formed in Victoria (for example Ballarat and Bendigo). Epizonal deposits are a form of orogenic gold deposit classified according to their depth of formation: epizonal (<6 km), mesozonal (6-12 km) and hypozonal (>12 km).
Epizonal deposits in Victoria often have associated high levels of the critical metal, antimony, and Sunday Creek is no exception. China claims a 56 per cent share of global mined supplies of antimony, according to a 2023 European Union study. Antimony features highly on the critical minerals lists of many countries including Australia, the United States of America, Canada, Japan and the European Union. Australia ranks seventh for antimony production despite all production coming from a single mine at Costerfield in Victoria, located nearby to all SXG projects. Antimony alloys with lead and tin which results in improved properties for solders, munitions, bearings and batteries. Antimony is a prominent additive for halogen-containing flame retardants. Adequate supplies of antimony are critical to the world's energy transition, and to the high-tech industry, especially the semi-conductor and defence sectors where it is a critical additive to primers in munitions.
In August 2024, the Chinese government announced it will place export limits on antimony and antimony products. This will put pressure on Western defence supply chains and negatively affect the supply of the metal and push up pricing given China's dominance of the supply of the metal in the global markets. This is positive for SXG as we are likely to have one of the very few large and high-quality projects of antimony in the western world that can feed western demand into the future.
Antimony represents approximately 20% in situ recoverable value of Sunday Creek at an AuEq of 1.88.
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:
