The company's 15km winter diamond drill programme has two aims: to define a maiden resource at Rajapalot and test more than a dozen semi-regional structural-stratigraphic targets over Mawson's 12 square kilometre prospect area.

With results back for five of the first 21 holes drilled, the company is in a bullish mood.

At the Raja prospect, drill hole PAL0093 intersected 31.7m at 8.4g/t Au from 244.1m, including 10.9m at 21g/t gold from 252.2m. This hole, drilled 120m and 290m, respectively, downplunge from previous drill holes PAL0062 (13.5m at 4g/t from 180m) and PAL0075 (27m at 3.3g/t from 64m), represents the highest grade-by-thickness interval drilled at Rajapalot.

In addition to this, another hole at Raja intersected 9.9m at 4.1g/t from 124m, while the South Palokas prospect, some 1,100m to the north-northwest of Raja, saw a 9.9m interval grading 2.5g/t from 145.9m.

Chairman and CEO Michael Hudson said drill hole PAL0093 puts Rajapalot "in a league with some the best exploration projects discovered globally over the past six months".

Drilling with three rigs is continuing at site with additional rigs to be added to the programme over the coming weeks.

In addition to drilling at Rajapalot, Mawson is carrying out a 900-hole base-of-till drill programme at its nearby Rompas gold project.

Last month, Goldcorp invested C$8.1 million (US$6.3 million) in Mawson to take a 12.7% stake in the junior.