Mawson hits 6 metres of 617 grams gold in Finland

Mawson ­Resources’ (MAW-T) share price has spiked after the company released a bonanza-grade drill intercept from its Rompas gold property in northern Finland.

Standout hole 11 returned 6 metres grading 617 grams gold per tonne uncut from 7 metres downhole, including 1 metre of 3,540 grams gold.

The high-grade hole was released along with results from 13 other holes that were part of an initial drill program on the property, but Mawson was not as fortunate with the other holes. Drill holes 1 through 6, targeting the project’s southern block, and holes 8, 13 and 14 in the northern block did not return mineralization above 1 gram per tonne gold, while the second-best result after hole 11 is hole 10, with a 1-metre interval of 10.8 grams gold from 29 metres depth.

Other highlights include 1 metre of 6.3 grams gold from 18 metres depth in hole 12, 1 metre of 1.7 grams gold in hole 9, and 1 metre of 1.6 grams gold in hole 7.

Despite the many misses, the one spectacular hole was enough to lift Mawson’s share price by 36¢, or 33% to $1.44, with a surge in volume to 236,000 shares traded.

The company reports that drilling has confirmed a more than 100-metre-wide, hydrothermal-veined system consisting of calc-silicate veins with 20- to 40-metre thick zones hosting 30% to 50% veining.

The drill program followed an exploration program by Mawson that discovered high-grade gold and uranium mineralization at ­surface over an area more than 6 km in strike and 200 metres width.

The weighted average of 154 channel samples from 2010 and 2011 came in at 1 metre grading 97.34 grams gold and 0.33% uranium oxide. High-grade channel samples included 1 metre grading 2,429 grams gold and 5.1% uranium oxide, and 1 metre of 343.6 grams gold and 0.21% uranium oxide.

The company has drilled 37 holes totalling 3,900 metres so far in its program, with results from the rest of the holes pending and two holes left to be drilled.

The Rompas project consists of 110 claims spanning 105.8 sq. km, though in December 2011 five appeals were lodged against granting the claims.

The company states that a review of the appeals is underway by Finnish authorities to assess their legitimacy, which, if shown to be valid, would lead to a court hearing on the matter.

Mawson has also applied for roughly 610 sq. km more claims.

Seventy percent of the 6-km-long trend the company has identified is overlaid by protected ­ecological areas that don’t allow drilling or trenching. The company can apply for a modification of those restrictions by conducting an environmental program, which it has initiated. It expects a decision sometime next year.

The company has 52 million shares outstanding, with 38% held by Sentient, Pinetree Capital and Areva, and 10% held by insiders. Mawson secured the Rompas project from Areva in 2010.

At last count Mawson had roughly $7 million in cash.

Mawson recently spun out its Peruvian assets into Darwin ­Resources (DAR-V), and sold its Swedish and Finnish uranium assets to Tournigan, now called European Uranium Resources (EUU-V), for $4.7 million in shares.