Marathon Hits 3.02 g/t Au over 32.9 meters (TT) in Step-Out Drilling, Valentine Gold Camp, Newfoundland

TORONTO, March 2, 2015 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corp. ("Marathon" or the "Company") (TSX: MOZ) today announced the very positive results from ongoing drilling its Marathon Gold Deposit, located 7 kilometers northeast along strike from the Leprechaun Gold Deposit and 5 kilometers southwest along strike from the Victory Gold Deposit, Valentine Gold Camp (Figure 1). This new deposit consists of dominantly shallow southwest dipping, multiple vertical stacked gold-bearing quartz-tourmaline-pyrite (QTP) tensional veining identical in appearance to the gold-bearing QTP veining found elsewhere throughout the Valentine Gold Camp.

This most recent drilling at the Marathon Gold Deposit has succeeded in expanding the dimensions of the mineralizing zone by intersecting new wide intervals of gold mineralization containing narrower high-grade ore shoots. The best wide intercepts included 3.02 g/t Au over 32.9 meters true thickness (TT) in MA-15-036, 2.87 g/t Au over 24.2 meters (TT) in MA-15-033, and 2.34 g/t Au over 28.5 meters (TT) in MA-15-034. Drilling to date has outlined a gold corridor with a strike length of over 350 meters, a true width ranging from 50 to 100 meters, and a vertical depth of more than 200 meters. A second near surface mineralized corridor has also been discovered closer to the contact with the Valentine Lake Thrust Fault (Figure 1). These expanding gold mineralized corridors are open along strike as well as to depth.

The remaining winter 2015 drilling campaign will focus on expanding the strike length of the gold mineralized corridors at the Marathon deposit and continue to add ounces to this developing near-surface open pit resource within the Valentine Gold Camp. All of the work programs for 2015 will be executed within the context of maintaining a strong treasury.

Highlights (all drill intercepts reported at true thickness):

• Step-out drilling to the southwest intersected 2.87 g/t Au over 24.2 meters with 6.44 g/t Au over 2.2 meters, 60.37 g/t Au over 0.6 meters and 10.38 g/t Au over 0.6 meters in MA-15-033 and 2.81 g/t Au over 8.4 meters with 9.13 g/t Au over 0.6 meters and 15.91 g/t Au over 0.6 meters in MA-15-035.
• Step-out drilling to the northeast intersected 3.02 g/t Au over 32.9 meters with 13.96 g/t Au over 4.2 meters and 12.42 g/t Au over 0.7 meters in MA-15-036.
• Infill drill hole MA-15-034 intersected 2.34 g/t Au over 28.5 meters with 16.02 g/t Au over 0.5 meters, 4.64 g/t Au over 4.0 meters and 47.57 g/t Au over 0.5 meters.
• All drill holes (MA-14-001 to MA-15-040) completed to date into the Marathon deposit have intersected multiple stacked, gold-bearing quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veining and confirm a mineralized corridor with a current strike length in excess of 350 meters, a true width that ranges from 50 to 100 meters and a vertical depth in excess of 200 meters (Figure 1).
• The continued success in Intersection wide intervals of good grade gold mineralization with each new step-out drill hole confirms the Marathon mineralized corridor is open along strike and to depth. The potential for discovery of additional parallel mineralized corridors is supported by the continued growth of the secondary gold zone located closer to the Valentine Lake Thrust Fault (Figure 1). The remaining winter 2015 drilling campaign will focus on expanding the strike length of the Marathon gold deposit with the aim of rapidly developing a significant new open-pit resource in this area proximal to the Valentine Lake Thrust Fault, Valentine Gold Camp.

Resource Estimation

A contract has been awarded to complete in Q2 the first open pit resources at the new Marathon and Sprite deposits and update the current resource at the Victory deposit. The results of the 2014 and winter 2015 drilling campaigns will be used in developing these new near-surface open pit resources. The Valentine Gold Camp currently has a NI 43-101 compliant gold resources totaling 816,000 oz. gold at 2.24 g/t (Measured & Indicated) and 149,000 oz. gold at 2.64 g/t (Inferred), (August, 2013), almost all of which is open pit resource in the Leprechaun Deposit.

"The winter 2015 drilling program is proceeding very well with robust intersections. It has been an exciting drilling program. We have over 2 km of gold showings to the north east of the Marathon Deposit yet to drill tested as well as some potential parallel zones around the Marathon Deposit that require further drilling. This deposit is very important in the ongoing development of Valentine Gold Camp." said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon.

TABLE 1: Significant assay intervals from the Marathon Zone drill holes MA-15-033 to MA-15-036.

*TT-Denotes true thickness

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

Marathon Gold Corp. acknowledges the financial support of the JEA Program, Department of Natural Resources, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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 Gold is a Toronto based gold resource company with exploration focused on its 100% owned Valentine Gold Camp located in central Newfoundland. The Valentine Gold Camp currently hosts two near-surface, mainly pit-shell constrained, NI 43-101 compliant gold resources totaling 816,000 oz. gold at 2.24 g/t (Measured & Indicated) and 149,000 oz. gold at 2.64 g/t (Inferred), (August, 2013). These resources, open along strike and to depth, cover less than 5% of the total length of the highly perspective Valentine Lake Thrust Fault and associated splay faults which host the majority of the gold mineralization within the property. Newly discovered gold zones, including the Sprite Zone and Marathon Zone, have returned wide intervals of near-surface good gold grades and have yet to be incorporated into new gold resources for the Valentine Gold Camp. For more information please visit www.marathon-gold.com. 

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Except for statements of historical fact relating to Marathon Gold Corp., 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.