SXG Drills 470 Metre Downdip Extension Below Historic Golden Dyke Mine Includes 0.4 m @ 44.4 g/t Gold, 0.6 m @ 14.6 g/t Au, and 0.2 m @ 29.0 g/t Au

Mawson Gold Limited announces that Southern Cross Gold Ltd. (“Southern Cross Gold” or “SXG”) has released results from two “control” diamond drill holes (SDDSC125 and SDDSC126) which  significantly extend the exploration target area.  SDDSC125 and SDDSC126 were drilled 190 m and 470 m respectively below the base of the historic Golden Dyke mine area at the 100%-owned Sunday Creek Project in Victoria, Australia (Figure 4).  

Highlights:

• Two large step-out “control” diamond drill holes (SDDSC125 and SDDSC126) drilled perpendicular to the dyke breccia host rock but sub parallel to mineralized veins at the Golden Dyke prospect significantly extend the exploration target area as reported on 23 Jan 2024.
  • SDDSC125 and SDDSC126 drilled 190 m and 470 m respectively below the base of the most productive historic mine on the 10 km long Sunday Creek field.
• SDDSC126 successfully intersected the dyke/breccia/altered sediment host structure down hole from 793 m to 836 m and drilled three high-grade vein sets 470 m below historic workings. It included four assayed intervals of > 10 g/t Au (up to 44.4 g/t Au).Selected highlights include (Figures 1 and 2):
  • 0.6 m @ 14.6 g/t AuEq (14.6 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 807.0 m
  • 4.8 m @ 2.4 g/t AuEq (2.4 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 821.0 m, including:
    • 0.2 m @ 29.0 g/t AuEq (29.0 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 822.4 m
  • 1.8 m @ 13.0 g/t AuEq (11.3 g/t Au, 0.9% Sb) from 833.6 m, including:
    • 0.4 m @ 49.3 g/t AuEq (44.4 g/t Au, 2.6% Sb) from 834.9 m
• SDDSC125 intersected the dyke/breccia/altered sediment host structure down hole from 390 m to 415 m in a 190 m step out below historic workings, proving the mineralized host continues along strike and at depth. Highlights included 1.0 m @ 2.4 g/t AuEq (1.4 g/t Au, 0.5% Sb) from 414.7 m (Figures 1 and 2).
• With these control holes now completed, the next steps at Golden Dyke are to drill east to west holes parallel to mineralized host structure (the ladder “rails”) and at high angle to the vein sets (“rungs”). Three east to west holes (SDDSC130, 132 and138) have now completed with results pending. 
• Cumulatively, 130 drill holes for 57,880 m have been reported by SXG (and Mawson Gold Ltd) from Sunday Creek since late 2020. Sixteen drill holes on the project are currently being processed and analyzed, with five holes in progress.
• Mawson owns 96,590,910 shares of SXG (48.9%), valuing its stake at A$275.3 million (C$251.9 million) based on SXG’s closing price on August 26, 2024 AEST.

“Impressively, Sunday Creek continues to grow significantly beyond the exploration target area (Figure 2) with these new and important holes that show the system with high grades continuing almost half a kilometre below the most prolific mine on the 10km long historic Sunday Creek gold field. 

“SDDSC125 and SDDSC126 were drilled 190 m and 470 m respectively below the base of the old workings. Despite (purposely) drilling perpendicular to the host dyke breccia host rock (“rails”), and sub-parallel to the mineralized vein sets (“rungs’), both holes, and especially SDDSC126, were successful in intersecting high grade gold and antimony mineralization including 0.6 m @ 14.6 g/t Au, 0.2 m @ 29.0 g/t Au and 0.4 m @ 44.4 g/t Au.

“With these control holes now completed, the next step at Golden Dyke is to drill east to west holes at a high angle to the vein sets (“rungs”) to best test for mineralization below Golden Dyke. Three east to west holes (SDDSC130, 132, 138 – Figures 1 and 2) have already been completed with results pending. Given these new results, the Company has already planned a significant number of further holes under Golden Dyke.”

Michael Hudson, Mawson Interim CEO and Executive Chairman

Drill Hole Discussion

Two drill holes (SDDSC125 and 126) are reported from the Golden Dyke prospect (Figures 1 and 2). Both holeswere designed to drill at a high angle to the dyke/breccia host structure with the intention of locating the mineralized host structure at depth. Despite drilling sub parallel to the mineralized vein sets both holes, and especially SDDSC126, were successful in intersecting high grade mineralization and successfully tested the dyke/breccia host structure at depth, drilling an altered package (dyke/breccia and altered sediment halo) with an estimated true width of 20 m – 25 m.

SDDSC125 intersected the dyke/breccia/altered sediment host structure down hole from 390 m to 415 m in a 190 m step out below historic workings, proving the mineralized host continues along strike and at depth. Highlights from SDDSC125 include:

• 1.0 m @ 2.4 g/t AuEq (1.4 g/t Au, 0.5% Sb) from 414.7 m

SDDSC126 successfully intersected the host dyke/breccia/altered sediment host structure down hole from 793 m to 836 m and drilled three high-grade vein sets in and 470 m below historic workings. These vein sets demonstrate a 470 m down-dip extension below historic workings and highlight the continuity of the host dyke/breccia structure at depth. It included four assayed intervals of > 10 g/t Au (up to 44.4 g/t Au).Selected highlights include (Figures 1 and 2):

Pending Results and Update

Sixteen holes (SDDSC123-124, 127-128, 130-137, 140, 050W1, 050W2, 092W1) are currently being processed and analyzed, with five holes (SDDSC129, 137W1, 138-139, 092W2) in progress (Figure 1 and Figure 2).

Exploration Target

On January 23, 2024, SXG announced the maiden gold and antimony Exploration Target at its flagship 100%-owned Sunday Creek Project in Victoria, Australia. The Exploration Target ranges reported are shown in Table 1. Notably, the Exploration Target was constrained to the current drill footprint at Apollo and Rising Sun as they contain sufficient drilling to determine continuity and infer grade ranges. This represents approximately one third to one half the strike of the main drill area and significant potential exists to increase the size of the exploration target with high grade drill results drilled for up to 450 m beyond the Exploration Target area.  Drilling since January has significantly expanded the footprint of mineralization beyond the bounds of the exploration target area.

Table 1. Sunday Creek Exploration Target for Apollo and Rising Sun at the Sunday Creek Project

The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target is conceptual in nature and therefore is an approximation. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource. The Exploration Target has been prepared and reported in accordance with the 2012 edition of the JORC Code.

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 4 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 mineralized 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 AuEq lower cutoff over a maximum of 1 m width unless specified.

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.

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 49% of Southern Cross Gold Ltd. (ASX:SXG) which owns or controls two high-grade, historic epizonal goldfields in Victoria, Australia, including the exciting Sunday Creek Au-Sb discovery. 

About Southern Cross Gold Ltd (ASX:SXG)

https://www.southerncrossgold.com.au/ 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 6.7% 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.

On behalf of the Board, “Michael Hudson”                 
Michael Hudson, Interim CEO and Executive Chairman

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 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 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.

Table 2: Drill collar summary table for recent drill holes in progress.

Table 3: Tables of mineralized drill hole intersections reported from SDDSC125 and 126 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 4: All individual assays reported from SDDSC125 and SDDSC126 reported here >0.1g/t AuEq.

• 0.6 m @ 14.6 g/t AuEq (14.6 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 807.0 m
• 4.8 m @ 2.4 g/t AuEq (2.4 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 821.0 m, including:
  • 0.2 m @ 29.0 g/t AuEq (29.0 g/t Au, 0.0% Sb) from 822.4 m
• 1.8 m @ 13.0 g/t AuEq (11.3 g/t Au, 0.9% Sb) from 833.6 m, including:
  • 0.4 m @ 49.3 g/t AuEq (44.4 g/t Au, 2.6% Sb) from 834.9 m