Marathon Drilling Expands the Sprite Zone with High-Grade, Near Surface Gold Intercepts - 5.35 g/t Au over 6.0m (TT) and 4.38 g/t Au over 5.4m (TT)

TORONTO, April 1, 2014 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corp. ("Marathon" or the "Company") (TSX: MOZ) today announced the intersection of additional high-grade near surface gold intervals during the current exploration drilling in the Sprite Area of the Valentine Lake Project (Figure 1). This latest drilling has continued to intersect wide near-surface intervals of quartz-tourmaline-pyrite (QTP) veining with high-grade gold intercepts. The Sprite area has a current strike length in excess of 500 meters and is open in all directions. The area of drilling is less than 2km from the Leprechaun Gold Deposit. Exploration continues at the Sprite Zone as Marathon works towards developing the next open pit resource at the Valentine Lake property.

Highlights include:

• Near surface intercepts of:
  5.35 g/t Au over 6.0 meters (TT) including 11.65 g/t Au over 2.4 meters (TT) in VL-14-553
  4.38 g/t Au over 5.4 meters (TT) including 10.85 g/t Au over 1.8 meters (TT) in VL-14-561
  2.73 g/t Au over 8.4 meters (TT) including 17.56 g/t Au over 1.2 meters (TT) in VL-14-557

• Deeper intercepts of 3.83 g/t Au over 5.6 meters (TT) including 24.25 g/t Au over 0.8 meters (TT) in VL-14-554.
  
  
• Marathon is in the early stages of finalizing the summer 2014 drill program at the Sprite Area. We await assay results from more drill holes for use in planning future drill targets. We are also planning additional prospecting and trenching to expand the area of interest.

"The Sprite Area continues to be a focus of attention and our exploration team will concentrate efforts on this area of the Valentine Lake property when the spring thaw is finished. This area is developing very well. We have 500 m of strike length established by prospecting and drilling and more prospecting to do to extend the known mineralization. There are 5 holes remaining that are being assayed and all of them intersected quartz pyrite tourmaline mineralization," said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon.

TABLE 1: Significant Assay Intervals from drill holes VL-14-553 to VL-14-557 and VL-14-560 to

VL-14-561, Sprite Zone

* No significant assay intervals in VL-14-556 and VL-14-560, assays for VL-14-558 and VL-14-559 are pending.

** (TT) - denotes true thickness

All of the samples were fire assayed at Eastern Analytical Laboratory Ltd., in Springdale, Newfoundland.

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 Marathon Gold Corporation

Marathon is a Toronto based gold resource development company focused on the Valentine Lake property in central Newfoundland. Marathon's mission is to rapidly move the Valentine Lake project towards advanced exploration and pre-development stages. For more information visit: www.marathon-gold.com.

About the Valentine Lake Project

The Valentine Lake property, owned 100% by Marathon Gold Corp., hosts two well defined gold deposits with NI 43-101 compliant resources: the Leprechaun Gold Deposit and the Victory Gold Deposit. The Leprechaun Gold Deposit is located near the south-western end of the Valentine Lake property, and the Victory Gold Deposit is located 13 kilometers along strike to the north-east. These gold deposits form part of a 23 km long, highly prospective gold-bearing mineralized corridor focused along the Valentine Lake Thrust Fault.

The Leprechaun Gold Deposit has a NI 43-101 compliant Open Pit and Underground Resource (refer to August 1, 2013 news release). The Open Pit Resource is Measured 3.5 million tonnes containing 247,000 oz Au, and Indicated 6.2 million tonnes containing 412,000 oz Au, and Inferred 1.2 million tonnes at 1.82 g/t Au containing 71,000 oz Au. The Underground Resource is Measured 108,000 tonnes containing 17,000 oz Au, and Indicated 764,000 tonnes containing 100,000 oz Au, and Inferred 349,000 tonnes containing 69,000 oz Au. As a result of favorable drilling results in 2013 and 2014, the Sprite Area, which is adjacent to the Leprechaun Gold Deposit, will be a focus of continued exploration this year.

The Victory Gold Deposit (formerly Valentine East Hill) has an Open Pit Resource (refer to August 1, 2013 news release). The Open Pit Resource is Indicated 761,000 tonnes containing 41,000 oz Au, and Inferred 199,000 tonnes containing 9,000 oz Au. Both deposits are open to expansion.

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 Corp.'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 Corp.

Image with caption: "Figure 1: Location map of Sprite Zone showing the collar position of drill holes VL-14-553 to VL-14-557 and VL-14-560 to VL-14-561, 2013 channel samples and mineralizing alteration corridor. (CNW Group/Marathon Gold Corp.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20140401_C8068_PHOTO_EN_38682.jpg