Marathon Gold Hits Near Surface High-Grade Mineralization 250 meters Southwest of Previous Drilling at the J. Frank Zone, Valentine Lake Project

• VL-12- 469 returns 7.24 g/t Au over 8.0 meters (TT)

TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2012 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corporation ("Marathon" or the "Company") (TSX: MOZ) today announced encouraging results from the initial three drill holes located 250 meters southwest of previous drilling at the J. Frank Zone, Valentine Lake Project, Newfoundland (Figure 1). The near surface drilling intercepted 7.24 g/t Au over 8.0 meters including 55.55 g/t Au over 1.0 meter in VL-12-469 (Plate 1), 3.69 g/t Au over 2.85 meters including 8.86 g/t Au over 0.95 meters in VL-12-470, and 1.52 g/t Au over 8.1 meters including 10.56 g/t Au over 0.9 meters in VL-12-471 (Plate 2).

To view the first three drill holes 250 meters southwest of the J. Frank Zone, please click here.

To view two images of new visible gold showings from drilling at the new southwest extension of the J. Frank Zone, please click Plate 1 and Plate 2.

"The first three drill results from the J. Frank Zone are very encouraging as it confirms the down-dip continuity of the high-grade gold quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veins. These veins were discovered on surface during recent trenching in this area, which is located more than 250 meters southwest of previous drilling of the J. Frank Zone vein," said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon Gold. "Drilling efforts are ongoing in the new J. Frank Zone extension and we are eager to continue defining this new prospective area."

Highlights include:

• The near surface intervals of 7.24 g/t Au over 8.0 meters (TT) including 55.55 g/t Au over 1.0 meter (TT) in VL-12-469 and 0.64 g/t Au over 2.7 meters (TT) including 1.47 g/t Au over 0.9 meters (TT) in VL-12-471 represent a 20 meter down-dip extension of the Galley Veins, which returned surface channels of 4.73 g/t Au over 24.68 meters including 20.54 g/t Au over 3.11 meters and 11.22 g/t Au over 4.2 meters and grab samples up to 141.6 g/t Au (refer to Sept 10, 2012 news release).
• Intervals of 3.69 g/t Au over 2.85 meters (TT) including 8.86 g/t Au over 0.95 meters (TT) in VL-12-470, and 1.52 g/t Au over 8.1 meters (TT) including 10.56 g/t Au over 0.9 meters (TT) in VL-12-471 represent an up to 60 meter down-dip extension of surface veining that returned channel samples of 0.19 g/t Au over 10.38 meters and grab samples up to 20.6 g/t Au (refer to Sept 10, 2012 news release).
• This new area, located 250 meters southwest of previous drilling in the J. Frank Zone, has an abundance of quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veins with numerous visible gold showings and is open both down-dip and along strike. Ongoing efforts are now focussed on drilling the near surface extensions of the larger veins.

TABLE 1: Significant Assay Intervals from drill holes in the SW - J. Frank Zone.

* All grades are uncut, and all thicknesses are estimated true thicknesses

The Valentine Lake Project is 100% owned by Marathon Gold Corporation (see July 9, 2012 news release). Marathon is conducting a summer-fall 2012 program of prospecting, geological mapping and trenching along the highly prospective 23 kilometer strike length of the property outside of the current boundaries of the Leprechaun Gold Deposit. One drill is currently turning on the newly discovered J. Frank Zone extension. All grades in this release are uncut, and all thicknesses are estimated true thicknesses. A total of 98 drill holes totaling 25,264 meters (72.2%) of the planned 2012 drilling campaign have now been completed.

All of the samples were analyzed at Eastern Analytical Laboratory Ltd., in Springdale, Newfoundland. Samples were assayed using lead collection fire assay with AA (atomic absorption) finish. Due to the coarse nature of the gold at the Leprechaun Gold Deposit, the metallic screening method is used on economically important intersections using standard fire assay techniques. The reported values in this release are fire assay results.

Sherry Dunsworth, M.Sc., P. Geo., VP of Exploration, Marathon's Qualified Person, has reviewed the contents for accuracy and has approved this press release on behalf of Marathon.

About the Valentine Lake Project

Marathon Gold Corporation is the 100% owner of the Valentine Lake Project. The Leprechaun Gold Deposit is situated at the south-western end of the Valentine Lake Project, and the Valentine East Gold Zone is located 17 kilometers along strike running in a north-easterly direction.  The J. Frank Zone, which currently extends over an area in excess of 850 meters in length and 250 meters in width, is located up to 0.5 kilometers southwest along strike from the current Resource boundary of the Leprechaun Gold Deposit. These gold occurrences form part of a 23 kilometer long, highly prospective gold-bearing mineralized corridor focused along the Valentine Lake thrust fault.

About the Leprechaun Gold Deposit

The Leprechaun Gold Deposit has a NI 43-101 compliant Measured and Indicated Resource of 6,446,000 tonnes grading 2.05 g/t Au, for a total estimated 424,000 ounces of Au (news release, March 29, 2012). The Inferred Resource is 5,742,000 tonnes grading 1.65 g/t Au, for an estimated 305,000 ounces of Au. This resource was estimated using a 0.5 g/t Au minimum cut-off over a 3 meter minimum width. The Leprechaun Gold Deposit is open at depth and along strike.

About Marathon Gold Corporation

Marathon Gold Corporation is a North American gold resource development company, with projects located in the mining friendly province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the prolific Coeur d'Alene Mining District of Idaho and the historic gold rich Greenhorn District of Oregon, USA.  Marathon has a project pipeline consisting of early stage exploration to advanced resource development projects. Marathon is continually evaluating new gold resource development projects of merit that are located within the Americas.  Marathon's focused and low-cost approach to exploration and resource development has an established record of delivering rapid growth.  For more information visit: www.marathon-gold.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Except for statements of historical fact relating to Marathon Gold Corporation, certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "considers", "intends", "targets", or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "may", "will", "should", "would" and "could". We provide forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about our current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes.  By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those identified and reported in Marathon Gold Corporation's public filings, which may be accessed at www.sedar.com.  Other than as specifically required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, whether as a result of new information, future events, results or otherwise.

SOURCE Marathon Gold Corporation