Marathon PGM Announces 8,000 Meter Drilling Program for Valentine Lake Gold Project
TORONTO, May 13 /CNW/ - Marathon PGM Corporation (MAR-TSX) ("Marathon") announced plans for an aggressive summer exploration program commencing late May 2010 including 8,000 meters of drilling. This work will focus on advancing the Leprechaun Gold Deposit towards an open pit resource and exploring the multiple gold occurrences identified along the 30km strike length of the Valentine Lake property.
Highlights:
- 8,000 meters of drilling to start in late May and continue into the
fall of 2010.
- A detailed IP survey, followed by trenching and drilling, will be
performed along the 2 km long structure that hosts the Leprechaun
Gold Deposit and the Sprite prospect as well as within the Valentine
East prospect located 13 km along strike to the northeast.
- Multiple gold showings throughout the 30 km long property will also
be evaluated.
Our highly successful winter 2010 drilling program at the Leprechaun Gold Deposit identified several high grade lenses of visible gold hosted by quartz-tourmaline stockwork within a (greater than)200m wide envelope of lower grade mineralization that extends into both the hanging wall and the footwall. The high grade lenses strike northeast with mineralized intersections grading 38.32 g/t over 9.0 m and 6.79 g/t gold over 25 meters in holes VL10-165 and VL10-160, respectively. The parallel hanging wall zones are an important component of the deposit but were not drilled during the winter program because of poor ice conditions but they will be evaluated by this summer's drilling from a floating barge on Leprechaun Pond. Drilling from the barge will also allow testing of the area up dip of where some of the best mineralization occurs at depth which could not be accessed this past winter. Mineralization at Leprechaun starts near surface and is configured favourably for open pit mining, with mineralized intersections grading 4.43 g/t gold over 20.8 meters and 2.78 g/t gold over 22 meters at depths of less than 50 meters below surface.
The high grade lenses and the overall mineralized envelope at Leprechaun occur within a 2 km long deformation zone that was drill tested by previous operators with very positive results including 7.92 g/t gold over 11.22 meters in VL04-98. Our IP and trenching program will focus on this structure with the objective of providing targets for drilling later in the summer.
Historical drilling at the Valentine East prospect intersected gold mineralization in 14 drill holes along a 720 meter strike length. The high grade gold-bearing quartz veins at Valentine East returned 30.9 g/t gold over 1 meter (VL99-17) and thicker zones of lower grade material with 1.51 g/t gold over 30.9 meters (8.6 meters not assayed) including 3.18 g/t gold over 9.6 meters (VL99-22).
"Our team is eager to delineate what could be Newfoundland's next gold mine", said Project Manager, Sherry Dunsworth.
Leprechaun Deposit
To date, the Leprechaun Gold Deposit is the first defined gold resource within the highly prospective Valentine Lake Gold Project ("Valentine Lake"). The Leprechaun Gold Deposit has an NI 43-101 compliant inferred mineral resource of 1,314,780 tonnes grading 10.50 g/t gold using a 5 g/t gold minimum cut-off and a 3 meter minimum width for a total estimated mineral resource of 443,000 ounces of gold. Cutting individual assays to 58 g/t gold, the average grade is 8.51 g/t gold, for a total estimated mineral resource of 359,000 ounces of gold at the cut grade. The Leprechaun Deposit is open at depth and along strike. The resource estimate of the Leprechaun Deposit presented in the NI 43-101 Technical Report dated January 12, 2005 was performed by Larry Pilgrim, P. Geo. a Qualified Person (see: NI 43-101 Valentine Lake Technical Report). Marathon is exploring Valentine Lake under an option and joint venture agreement between Marathon and Mountain Lake Resources Inc (TSX.v:MOA"). Please see Marathon's OJVA press release of December 23, 2009 by clicking http://www.marathonpgm.com/news/2009/231209.pdf
All of the samples were sent to Eastern Analytical Laboratory Ltd. in Springdale, Newfoundland. Samples were assayed using lead collection fire assay with AA (atomic absorption) finish. Results from fire assay are used for drill hole planning only. Assay results for the planned updated resource calculation will be determined by a metallic screening process currently in progress.
David Good, Ph.D., P.Geo., VP of Exploration is Marathon's Qualified Person in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 with respect to this release. Dr. Good has reviewed the contents for accuracy and has approved this press release on behalf of Marathon.
About Marathon PGM Corporation:
Marathon is exploring resource development potential in the immediate vicinity of the Marathon deposit to expand mine life of the planned large tonnage, open pit mining operation. The Marathon deposit is one of the largest PGM-Cu reserves in Canada and is expected to grow with development of additional nearby resources. Marathon's optimized P+P reserve of 91.45 million tonnes grading 0.832 g/t Pd, 0.237 g/t Pt, 0.085 g/t Au, 0.247% Cu and 1.44 g/t Ag, contains 2.44 million ounces of Pd, 696,000 ounces of Pt, 251,000 ounces of Au, 497 million lbs of Cu and 4.23 million ounces of Ag. Marathon also has development and exploration stage properties in southeastern Manitoba and western Newfoundland, respectively. Marathon's management plans to build on its experience through the advancement of its properties and by examining other strategic opportunities. Mountain Lake has a 30% interest in the Valentine Lake Gold Property with an option to acquire the remaining 70% interest from Richmont Mines Inc. and a subsequent sub-option and joint venture agreement whereby Marathon PGM Corp. can earn a 50% in the property.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Except for statements of historical fact relating to Marathon, 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 Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2009.
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 or results otherwise.
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For further information: David Leng, P.Geo: Tel: (416) 849-3432, dleng@marathonpgm.com
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