Mawson Resources Limited announce the commencement of the 2018 winter diamond drilling program with the arrival of four rigs on site in northern Finland. A 15,000 metre drill program is planned at the Rajapalot gold project, while a 900-hole base-of-till drill program is underway at the nearby Rompas gold project. Key Points: Three diamond drill rigs have been mobilized to the Rajapalot project to commence a 15,000 metre winter diamond drill program; Approximately half of the diamond drilling program is planned to systematically grid drill to increase the size of known gold prospects, with an aim to define a maiden resource at Rajapalot. The immediate surrounds of the Palokas, South Palokas and Raja prospects are the initial targets for grid diamond drilling. At Palokas, drilling results from the 2017 winter program include 6.8 metres @ 14.7 g/t gold from 34.4 metres in drill hole PAL0027, while at Raja 8.8 metres @ 7.5 g/t gold from 82.2 metres was intersected in drill hole PAL0075; The second half of the diamond drilling program will test more than a dozen semi-regional structural-stratigraphic targets defined within Mawson's extensive geophysical, geochemical and geological datasets across the 12 square kilometre Rajapalot prospect area; A base-of-till drill rig has commenced a 900-shallow hole program within the Rompas project area. BOT drilling will target prospective lithologies with potential to host disseminated gold mineralization along a 20 kilometre strike which includes the East Rompas prospect; Eight diamond drill holes totalling 1,474 metres have been completed at East Rompas. Assay results from the first 5 holes show low tenor gold anomalism and locally nuggety visible gold in drill core. Three diamond drill rigs are now active at Rajapalot. An additional two rigs will be mobilized from mid-March to allow the 15,000 metre target to be achieved before winter conditions end in late April. Drilling during 2017 at Rajapalot tested only a small fraction (<5%) of the 27 kilometre strike of the interpreted host sequence, successfully confirming the presence of a large gold-mineralized hydrothermal system across a 4.5 square kilometre area. Rajapalot demonstrates an exceptional rate of drill success through thin glacial soil cover, with 42% of holes (58 out of 137 holes) discovering significant gold, greater than 1 g/t-m, and 28% recording greater than 5 g/t-m intersections. The total average drill depth on the project remains shallow at 109 metres. Nine hundred BOT drill holes, drilled over 19 traverses totalling 23 line kilometres, will map the full north-south extent of the Rompas project. The program will test for disseminated gold targets similar to the high-grade Rajapalot style. These targets will then be ranked and diamond drilled as appropriate. Diamond drilling of 8 holes for 1,474 metres to test the extent of high grade outcrops at East Rompas has been completed. Assay results from the first 5 drill holes have been received with only low level anomalous gold detected to date. Conductive targets drilled were structurally-controlled, sulphidic bituminous rocks. An occurrence of visible gold in drill core (ROM0089 @ 31.2 metres) demonstrated the nuggety nature of the East Rompas gold mineralization. It is likely that the high-grade gold in surface samples discovered at East Rompas are the deformed eastern extension of the Rompas calcsilicate-hosted vein system. Hydrothermal gold transport of the same age as Rajapalot gold deposition (approx. 1.8 Ga) is evident, but the structural-stratigraphic traps required for larger grade-width intersections were not intersected. Due to a lack of continuity beneath high grade outcrops, prospectivity of the immediate surrounds of the prospect are reduced and the immediate surrounds of the East Rompas prospect are considered adequately tested. However, the prospectivity of the 20 kilometres of strike remains high and is the target of the current 900-hole BOT drill program.