Ms. Noora Ahola reports

MAWSON'S SUBSIDIARY SXG ACQUIRES HIGH-GRADE LAURA DRILL DISCOVERY AT REDCASTLE AND FURTHER FREEHOLD AT SUNDAY CREEK

Mawson Gold Ltd.'s 51-per-cent-owned, Australian Securities Exchange-listed subsidiary, Southern Cross Gold (SXG), has acquired both:

• The prospecting licence PL6415 (Laura) located within the 70-per-cent-owned Redcastle joint venture in the Victorian goldfields;
• Further freehold land within the 100-per-cent-owned Sunday Creek epizonal-style gold project.

The strategic acquisition of the Laura prospecting licence completely secures one of the higher-grade parts of the Redcastle goldfield, where recent drilling has identified very high grades (up to 704 grams per tonne gold and 24.7 per cent antimony) within continuous and targetable structures above a 1.3-kilometre-long and a coherent induced polarization anomaly.

The new freehold land package purchased at Sunday Creek lies adjacent to both the main access and current freehold ownership at the project.

Highlights:

• SXG expands its epizonal gold-antimony search in Victoria, Australia, with the 100-per-cent purchase of the Laura PL6415 prospecting licence for $300,000 (Australian):
  • Provides an immediate and extremely high-grade drill discovery to expand upon and to build another project of scale for SXG;
  • Consolidates SXG's extensive ground holding and best drill grades at the Redcastle gold and antimony field.
• Laura is located entirely within SXG's 70-per-cent-owned Redcastle JV, two km immediately north of Mandalay Resources' exploration properties which contain the Costerfield mine.
• Laura's previous owners drilled 16 diamond holes for 1,923.2 metres during 2019 below the historic Laura mine, with multiple thin and continuous high grades. Significant results include:
  • RDDH03: 0.1 m at 743 g/t gold equivalent (704 g/t Au, 24.7 per cent Sb) from 116.9 m;
  • RDDH07: 0.2 m at 28.1 g/t AuEq (27.9 g/t Au, 0.1 per cent Sb) from 67.8 m;
  • RDDH08: 0.2 m at 20 g/t AuEq (17.5 g/t Au, 1.6 per cent Sb) from 162.6 m;
  • RDDH12: 0.1 m at 42.9 g/t AuEq (20 g/t Au, 14.5 per cent Sb) from 70.9 m;
  • RDDH13: 0.1 m at 20.2 g/t AuEq (10.1 g/t Au, 6.4 per cent Sb) from 108.1 m;
  • RDDH15: 0.1 m at 12.5 g/t AuEq (5.8 g/t Au, 4.3 per cent Sb) from 75.1 m.
• The Laura project also forms a key geophysical target within the Redcastle goldfield, with a 1.3 km long coherent induced polarization (IP) chargeability anomaly underlying the Laura PL6415. The IP anomaly also sits below historic mines that produced 20,583 ounces at 254.6 g/t Au over two km strike length down to a maximum depth of 125 m during 1859 to 1865.
• Next steps are to progressively drill beyond the high-grade intercepts within the Laura area, into the 17 km of untested reef systems at Redcastle.
• Southern Cross Gold finalizes purchase of 0.65 hectare of freehold land that is located adjacent to both the main access and current freehold ownership to the Sunday Creek project.
• Freehold ownership further secures surface access and provides additional area for any potential future gold operation.
• Diamond drilling continues at Sunday Creek with four diamond rigs now focused on testing gold structures down to 800 m depth and 1.2 km along strike at Sunday Creek.

Noora Ahola, Mawson interim chief executive officer, states: "These acquisitions have consolidated ownership at both the Redcastle and Sunday Creek projects. The purchase of the Laura prospect has brought under its control the best drilled gold and antimony grades at Redcastle. SXG have bought a 16-hole drill discovery for less than the cost to drill and an extremely high-grade area from which to expand and build another project of scale. Additionally, the purchase of additional freehold land at the Sunday Creek gold-antimony project locks in land access and continues to derisk and secure future success for the project."

PL6415 Laura drilling

PL6415 extends over 310 m strike length by 160 m width and contains five quartz reefs with extensive historic workings at surface, the principal being Laura. The historic Laura mine was one of the more productive reefs mined in the northwestern part of the Redcastle goldfield. PL6415 is located wholly within the Redcastle JV EL5546, held 70 per cent by Southern Cross Gold, in joint venture with Nagambie Resources Ltd.

The previous owners of Laura (Core Prospecting Pty. Ltd. and Starwest Ltd.) drilled 16 holes for 1,923.2 m in 2019, in the vicinity of the old Laura mine. This work returned some narrow intervals of high-grade gold and antimony, with significant results including:

• RDDH01: 0.2 m at 7.8 g/t AuEq (4.8 g/t Au, 1.9 per cent Sb) from 115.1 m;
• RDDH03: 0.1 m at 743 g/t AuEq (704 g/t Au, 24.7 per cent Sb) from 116.9 m;
• RDDH07: 0.2 m at 28.1 g/t AuEq (27.9 g/t Au, 0.1 per cent Sb) from 67.8 m;
• RDDH08: 0.2 m at 20 g/t AuEq (17.5 g/t Au, 1.6 per cent Sb) from 162.6 m;
• RDDH11: 0.1 m at 18.8 g/t AuEq (11.1 g/t Au, 4.9 per cent Sb) from 93.3 m;
• RDDH12: 0.1 m at 42.9 g/t AuEq (20 g/t Au, 14.5 per cent Sb) from 70.9 m;
• RDDH13: 0.1 m at 20.2 g/t AuEq (10.1 g/t Au, 6.4 per cent Sb) from 108.1 m;
• RDDH14: 0.2 m at 12.7 g/t AuEq (5.7 g/t Au, 4.4 per cent Sb) from 79.3 m;
• RDDH15: 0.1 m at 12.5 g/t AuEq (5.8 g/t Au, 4.3 per cent Sb) from 75.1 m.

These drilling data compare favourably with the Redcastle drilling data (from outside PL6415) held by SXG. Intervals in the Laura data are narrow compared with the other Redcastle data but the grades are higher, with five of the assay grades from Laura equalling or exceeding the highest Au equivalent assays within the entire SXG Redcastle data set. This partly reflects the one or two m sampling in the historic reverse circulation drill data, which makes up the majority of the latter, but it also demonstrates the consistent higher grade in the Laura reef. The lateral continuity of the reef is supported by drill core observations which confirm that the reef is a laminated quartz vein, parallel to bedding with stylolitic inclusions throughout and stibnite occurring on or close to the vein margins.

Local geology and structural setting

The PL6415 Laura prospecting licence is located entirely within SXG's 70-per-cent-owned Redcastle EL5546 JV. It is a shallow orogenic (or epizonal) Costerfield-style historic high-grade field. The project is located two km north of Mandalay Resources' Costerfield mine and exploration leases and 25 km east of Agnico Eagle's Fosterville mine -- two of the world's highest-grade gold mines.

The host rocks are finely interbedded turbidite sequences of sandstone and siltstone, the oldest of which is a sequence of early Silurian turbiditic sandstone and siltstone known as the Wapentake formation which is conformably overlain by the Silurian Dargile formation, McIvor sandstone and Mount Ida formation. Overlying the Palaeozoic basement rocks are Quaternary unconsolidated clays of the Shepparton formation and alluvial sands of the Coonambidgal formation.

The goldfield is a structurally controlled system sitting in the western limb of the plunging Redcastle anticline. Host rocks consist of thinly interbedded sandstones and mudstones of the Wapentake and Dargile formations. In the Melbourne structural zone, sites of gold deposition on a regional scale appear to favour areas of refolding or interference folding, as seen in the Redcastle anticline.

Geophysical IP chargeability target

The Laura project also forms a key geophysical target within the Redcastle goldfield. Drilling to date has been shallow (less than 135 m vertical). Below the Laura drilling a 1.3 km long coherent induced polarization (IP) chargeability anomaly generated by Mawson Victoria's 3-D offset array IP geophysical survey underlies the Laura PL6415. This is considered highly prospective, as there are at least nine mined structures above the geophysical anomaly (five within the Laura PL) where the Welcome group of mines reported to have extracted 20,583 oz at 254.6 g/t Au over two km strike length down to a maximum depth of 125 m (in the period 1859 to 1865).

Context with historic mining at Redcastle

During the 1800s the average mining width was approximately one m on quartz veins with visible gold (individual reef widths were less than 0.6 m). The length of workings combined is 17 km with several reef systems extending for kilometres. Spurs off the main reef systems were recorded to have been worked for distances between 15 m and 33 m. It is a characteristic of Redcastle that reefs are closely spaced. On the western side of the field 14 reefs are recorded to occur in a cross-strike distance of 900 metres.

At Redcastle, the key historic targets were narrow but continuous thin (0.3 m to one m) very high-grade structures continuing to depth. Historical records, however, continually reference gold found marginal to reefs in the country rock (wall rock of quartz-vein structures) with shallow modern-day reverse circulation drilling and trenching confirming that gold extends beyond these high-grade quartz-vein structures. Beyond the high-grade visible gold in quartz-veins, additional targets included vein stockworks in sandstones and dike-hosted mineralization. The largest dike was mined to a depth of 27 m and was 11.5 m wide at 25 to 120 g/t gold with 160 tonnes of ore extracted suggesting the dike may have been selectively mined, although the width of the dike suggests scope for a larger-scale and lower-grade target. Wider zones in stockworks (2.4 m to 4.8 m wide) and breccia zones at Beautiful Venus have been recorded up to 20 m in width. Mineralization is typically hosted in shear veins striking approximately 345 to 360 degrees and dipping steeply westward, containing quartz, carbonate, visible gold and antimony sulphide (stibnite). Surrounding the shear veins are a narrow, less-than-five-centimetre arsenopyrite and pyrite halo within the host rock which are weakly auriferous.

Context with Costerfield mined mineralization

Mandalay Resources' Costerfield mine and exploration leases are located two km south of SXG's Redcastle JV EL5546. Costerfield is the target model sought at Redcastle. The Costerfield mine corridor contains two million ounces of equivalent gold. Average drill hole widths and grades at Costerfield are: Brunswick lode (0.7 m at nine g/t Au and four per cent Sb), Youle lode (0.4 m at 47.7 g/t Au and 11.4 per cent Sb), Kendal splay (0.3 m at 92.8 g/t Au and 41.3 per cent Sb) and Peacock lode (0.4 m at 13 g/t Au and 6 per cent Sb). The average vein width at Augusta is 0.3 m, while the Cuffley lode averaged 0.4 m. Average mined widths at Costerfield are two m.

Commercial terms

The company purchased 100 per cent of the prospecting licence PL6415 for cash consideration of $300,000 from arm's-length Core Prospecting and Starwest.

Sunday Creek land purchase

SXG already owns 132.64 hectares of freehold property that covers both the Sunday Creek project drill area and areas for potential extension of the zone to the east. The new area lies adjacent to both the main access and current freehold ownership at Sunday Creek. Freehold ownership secures surface access and provides sufficient area for any potential future gold operation. The company acquired the 0.65 ha freehold for $366,240 and may also consider other uses for the freehold land in the future, such as renewable energy options, livestock grazing or agistment to help maintain the property (although there are no current plans for such additional uses). As the contract was conditional upon satisfying the requirements of the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 (Cth), a no objection notification for the freehold acquisition without conditions from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) was received before settlement.

Further discussion and analysis of the Sunday Creek and Redcastle projects by Southern Cross Gold is available on the SXG website.

Redcastle joint venture

A subsidiary of the company, Mawson Victoria Pty. Ltd., is party to an option and joint venture agreement with Nagambie Resources for the Redcastle joint venture tenements. Mawson Victoria has met the obligations to achieve $1-million of exploration commitments over a five-year period set under the farm-in agreements by March 25, 2025, and has earned a 70-per-cent economic interest Redcastle JV. A joint venture between the parties is now in the process of being formed. Nagambie Resources may contribute its 30-per-cent share of further exploration expenditures or, if it chooses not to contribute, dilute its interest. Should Nagambie Resource's interest be reduced to less than 5 per cent, it will be deemed to have forfeited its interest in the joint venture to the company in exchange for a 1.5-per-cent net smelter return royalty (NSR) on gold revenue. Should Nagambie Resources be granted the NSR, the company will have the right to acquire the NSR for $4-million.

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 which operates under both 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 atomic absorption spectroscopy equipment. Samples for multielement analysis (BM011 and overrange methods as required) use aqua regia digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis. The quality assurance/quality control 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.

Mawson considers that both gold and antimony that are included in the gold equivalent calculation have reasonable potential to be recovered at Redcastle, given current geochemical understanding, historic production statistics and geologically analogous mining operations. Mawson considers that it is appropriate to adopt the same gold equivalent variables as Mandalay Resources 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 $1,700 (U.S.) per ounce, an antimony price of $8,500 (U.S.) per tonne, and 2021 total year metal recoveries of 93 per cent for gold and 95 per cent for antimony.

About Mawson Gold Ltd.

Mawson Gold is an exploration and development company. Mawson has distinguished itself as a leading Nordic exploration company with its 100-per-cent-owned flagship Rajapalot gold-cobalt project in Finland, and right to earn into the Skelleftea North gold project in Sweden. Mawson also currently owns 51 per cent of Southern Cross Gold which in turn owns or controls three high-grade, historic epizonal goldfields covering 470 square km in Victoria, Australia.

About Southern Cross Gold Ltd.

Southern Cross Gold owns 70 per cent of the Redcastle JV in Victoria and Mount Isa project in Queensland, 100 per cent of the Sunday Creek project, and is earning into the Whroo joint venture in Victoria, Australia, and a strategic 10-per-cent holding in ASX-listed Nagambie Resources which grants SXG a right of first refusal over a 3,300-square-kilometre tenement package held by NAG in Victoria.

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