TORONTO , Jan. 7, 2015 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corporation ("Marathon" or the "Company") (MOZ.TO) today announced positive results from drill holes MA-14-015 to MA-14-022 in the gold-rich Marathon Zone, located 7 kilometers northeast along strike from the Leprechaun Gold Deposit and 5 kilometers southwest along strike from the Victory Gold Deposit, Valentine Lake Gold Camp (Figure 1). The gold-bearing quartz-tourmaline-pyrite (QTP) veining at the Marathon Zone consists of multiple vertical stacked, dominantly shallow southwest dipping tensional veining that is identical in appearance to gold-bearing QTP veining found elsewhere throughout the Valentine Lake Gold Camp.

Drill holes MA-14-015 to MA-14-022 intersected additional wide intervals of gold mineralization hosting narrower high-grade ore shoots and forming part of the growing Marathon Zone which has a current strike length of over 200 meters. Drilling has so far outlined a near vertical corridor of gold mineralization ranging from 50 to 100 meters in true width, over 200 meters in strike length, and up to 200 meters in vertical depth. A total of 25 drill holes totaling 4,131 meters of NQ core were drilled into this major QTP-gold vein system after its initial discovery in late 2014. The gold mineralized corridor is currently open along strike as well as to depth (Figure 1).

Highlights (all drill intercepts reported at true thickness):

• Wide intervals of gold mineralization include 2.01 g/t Au over 40.8 meters in MA-14-021, 1.61 g/t Au over 27.6 meters in MA-14-022, 1.45 g/t Au over 6.5 meters in MA-14-015, and 0.80 g/t Au over 20.4 meters in MA-14-016.

• Narrow, high-grade gold intervals include 14.51 g/t Au over 2.4 meters and 11.53 g/t Au over 0.6 meters in MA-14-021, 25.60 g/t Au over 0.6 meters and 14.12 g/t Au over 0.6 meters in MA-14-022, 13.18 g/t Au over 0.6 meters in MA-14-019, 12.80 g/t Au over 0.6 meters in MA-14-020, and 11.73 g/t Au over 0.6 meters in MA-14-017.

• The initial 22 drill holes into the Marathon Zone have intersected an area of multiple vertical stacked, dominantly shallow southwest dipping tensional gold-bearing QTP veining that defines a near vertical mineralized corridor currently up to 100 meters wide, up to 200 meters deep, more than 200 meters in strike length, and currently open along strike. Assays are pending for the remaining 2014 drill holes MA-14-023 to MA-14-025.

• Drilling at the Marathon Zone will resume in early January, 2015 with the aim of immediately increasing the strike length of this new gold-rich zone and quickly developing a significant new open-pit resource(s) in this area proximal to the Valentine Lake Thrust Fault, Valentine Lake Gold Camp.

• Further drilling in the 2015 will focus on building additional gold resources through added drilling at the Narrows and Triangle Zones located up to 2km along strike from the Marathon Zone, as well as within the Sprite Zone and Victory Gold Deposit.

"The Marathon Zone is part of a major gold-mineralized alteration corridor that extends along a more than 30 kilometer NE-SW strike length of the Valentine Lake Thrust through the Valentine Lake Gold Camp. Our exploration efforts since 2010 have told a story of continuous discovery and near-surface gold resource development and we are looking forward to continued success with the scheduled start-up of drilling next week in the Marathon Zone. This program will be limited in scope and will leave our treasury in good shape", said Phillip Walford , President and CEO of Marathon.

TABLE 1: Significant assay intervals from the Marathon Zone drill holes MA-14-015 to MA-14-025.

*Assays pending for MA-14-023 to MA-14-025

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

Marathon Gold Corporation 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 Lake Gold Camp located in central Newfoundland . The Valentine Lake Gold Camp currently hosts two near-surface, mainly pit-shell constrained, 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 Lake 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 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

Image with caption: "Figure 1: Location map showing the location of the new DDH's MA-14-014 to MA-14-022, previously released DDH's MA-14-001 to MA-14-014, and additional DDH's MA-14-023 to MA-14-025. (CNW Group/Marathon Gold Corporation)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150107_C6456_PHOTO_EN_9972.jpg