News

Vancouver, Canada -- Mawson Resources Limited ("Mawson") TSXv -- MAW. Mr Michael Hudson, President, is pleased to announce results of the final five drill holes from the Phase 1 eighteen-hole reverse circulation ("RC") drill program at the Vargbäcken property located in the Skellefte mining district of Northern Sweden. Significant new results include 8 m of 4.1 g/t gold in drill hole RC49 and 4 m of 7.0 g/t gold in RC45. Using a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t gold, drill hole RC49 averaged 74 m of 1.2 g/t gold from 40m. Results from these 5 new and 14 previously reported drill holes are attached as Table 1.

Gold at Vargbäcken is visible, free and coarse grained and occurs in high grade "bonanza" structures within a wider gold and sulphide-bearing mineralized halo which is mapped by an induced polarization anomaly over 1 km strike.

Mr Hudson states, "Our Phase 1 RC drill program at Vargbäcken of 1,730 metres was complete in mid-December 2004. Gold mineralization was defined over a strike length of 550m with 17 out of the 18 holes drilled intersecting better than 2m of 2 g/t gold. Higher grade gold mineralization has now been drill delineated over 250m strike and from surface to 160 m depth. We are excited that drilling down-dip and along strike from the bonanza gold intersections in RC34 (2 m of 72.6 g/t gold and 1 m of 116.5 g/t gold) has demonstrated the presence of further high grade gold. The prospect remains open and further drilling is planned in April 2005, as soon as spring conditions allow, with the aim of infill drilling Vargbäcken to resource status."

A drill plan and a longitudinal section showing the location of all Phase 1 drill holes is available from Mawson's website at www.mawsonresources.com/index.php?page=ProjectsVBN. All reported drill holes were drilled at 45 degrees dip towards 275 degrees azimuth at a high angle to the metasediment/diorite contact which forms the strike control for mineralization. At this early stage, it is not possible to make a conclusive statement defining true widths in the reported down-hole intercepts.

Vargbäcken is covered by a 25 year mining lease of 21 hectares. Mawson has an option to acquire an 80% interest in the Vargbäcken property from North Atlantic Natural Resources AB by incurring a total of SEK12 million (approximately C$2 million) in exploration expenditures by June 28, 2009. Mawson holds 100% of an 8,300 hectare exploration permit which surrounds the Vargbäcken mining lease.

Mark Saxon, Vice-President of Exploration for Mawson and Member of the AusIMM, is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the exploration program design, monitoring and quality control of Mawson's exploration programs and has verified the information contained in this release. Samples from the drill program were assayed at ALS Chemex Ltd's laboratory in Piteå, Sweden, using a 500g bottle roll (cyanide leach) technique with leachwell accelerant and an atomic absorption spectroscopy finish. Duplicates, repeats, blanks and known gold standards were inserted according to standard industry practice. A high degree of correlation was achieved with selected 500g metallic screen fire assay checks carried out by an independent laboratory, International Plasma Laboratory Ltd ("iPL") in Vancouver. Both iPL and ALS Chemex are ISO 9002 certified. A flow chart of quality control procedures is available at www.mawsonresources.com/index.php?page=ProjectsQC.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Michael Hudson"
Michael Hudson, President & CEO

Investor Information
www.mawsonresources.com

1305 -- 1090 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, V6E 3V7
Company Contact: Mariana Bermudez (604) 685 9316
Investor Relations Consultant: Nick Nicolaas (604) 657 4058
Email: info@mawsonresources.com

Forward Looking Statements

This Company Summary contains certain "forward-looking" statements and information relating to the Company that are based on the beliefs of the Company's management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company's management. Such statements reflect the current risks, uncertainties and assumptions related to certain factors including, without limitations, competitive factors, general economic conditions, customer relations, relationships with vendors and strategic partners, the interest rate environment, governmental regulation and supervision, seasonality, technological change, changes in industry practices, and one-time events. Should any one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein. The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Table 1 -- Vargbäcken Reverse Circulation Drill Hole Results January 2004

Location

Drill Hole

From (m)

To (m)

Width(m)

Gold(g/t)

Gold(g/t)

Section 00N

RC49

53

54

1

10.1

7.4

   

58

66

8

4.1

4.0

 

including

58

59

1

10.9

 
 

including

62

63

1

11.1

 
   

79

82

3

1.5

0.9

   

88

100

12

1.6

 
   

106

108

2

1.3

 

Section 300N

RC48

49

51

2

2.2

 

Section 200N

RC47

36

38

2

1.7

 

Section 140N

RC46

53

57

4

1.5

 
   

72

74

2

1.7

 

Section 140N

RC45

38

42

4

7.0

 
 

including

41

42

1

21.7

 
   

60

62

2

1.1

 

Section 60S

RC444

31

35

4

5.3

 
 

including

32

33

1

16.3

 

Section 60S

RC434

70

72

2

1.4

 
   

100

102

2

1.5

 
   

106

108

2

1.7

 
   

110

113

3

2.3

 
   

116

118

2

5.8

 
   

124

127

3

10.0

 
 

including

124

125

1

13

 
   

126

127

1

17.4

 
   

131

133

2

1.2

 
   

141

143

2

2.3

 
   

149

150

1

8.7

 
   

154

170

16

3.3

 
 

including

158

164

6

3.9

 
   

166

170

4

5.4

 
   

167

168

1

15.7

 
   

173

178

5

2.0

 

Section 140S

RC424

39

41

2

2.4

1.9

Section 100S

RC414

25

27

2

1.3

 
   

30

32

2

17.9

 

Section 140S

RC404

     

No Signific

ant Gold

Section 100S

RC394

60

62

2

2.2

 
   

96

98

2

1.1

 
   

120

128

8

2.2

 
 

including

123

124

1

4.4

 
   

125

126

1

4.7

 

Section 100S

RC384

18

20

2

1.4

 
   

45

47

2

3.8

3.0

   

58

59

1

4.0

 

Section 100S

RC374

22

24

2

1.8

 
   

58

61

3

1.9

 
   

64

66

2

1.1

 

Section 00N

RC364

37

39

2

2.1

 
   

53

55

2

4.8

 
   

69

71

2

1.1

 

Section 00N

RC354

42

44

2

1.1

 
   

54

58

4

1.4

 
   

76

80

4

1.1

 
   

84

87

3

1.3

 
   

108

111

3

2.2

 
   

129

131

2

2.5

 
   

141

146

5

2.8

 
 

including

141

143

2

3.7

 
   

145

146

1

6.6

 

Section 00N

RC344

38

41

3

10.4

11.1

 

including

40

41

1

28.1

30.7

   

46

47

1

4.2

4.3

   

52

54

2

3.3

16.3

   

57

67

10

8.6

6.1

 

including

59

60

1

56.4

34.9

   

66

67

1

8.0

7.4

   

70

84

14

19.8

21.4

 

including

70

72

2

72.6

76.8

   

82

83

1

116.5

130.3

Section 50N

RC334

42

55

13

4.5

 
 

including

51

55

4

12.4

 

Section 50N

RC324

68

84

16

1.2

 
 

including

68

69

1

4.9

 

Note 1: Calculated using a 2m minimum thickness and a 1 g/t gold lower cut. No upper cut applied.
Note 2: Gold analyzed by 500g bottle roll technique with leachwell accelerant and an atomic absorption spectroscopy finish by ALS Chemex Ltd's laboratory in Piteå, Sweden.
Note 3: Assay results independently checked with 500g metallic screen fire assays by International Plasma Laboratory Ltd in Vancouver, Canada.
Note 4: Previously reported in Mawson News Releases November 29 and December 14, 2004.