Marathon PGM Hits 33.54 g/t (uncut) Gold Across 4 m (0.98 oz/ton uncut across 13.1 feet) at Leprechaun Gold Deposit
TORONTO, July 21 /CNW/ - Marathon PGM Corporation (MAR-TSX) ("Marathon") announced that results from drilling and grab sampling have expanded the boundaries of gold mineralization on-strike to the southwest and northeast at the Leprechaun Gold Deposit, in Central Newfoundland.
Highlights:
- best drill interval contains 33.54 g/t (uncut) gold across
4 m (0.98 oz/ton (uncut) gold across 13.1 feet) in VL-10-190, which
represents a new lens of high grade mineralization
- grab samples with assay values of between 49 and 79 g/t gold confirm
the greater than 300 m wide corridor of mineralization and that
mineralization is open to the southwest
- multiple, shallow intersections of gold mineralization were
encountered in both sub-horizontal and sub-vertical vein sets
- best intervals occur at intersections of sub-horizontal and steeply
dipping vein sets
- geophysical survey indicates new targets are developing at depth
- Leprechaun Deposit has now been drilled over a strike length of 700 m
and is growing
- click here for map
http://www.marathonpgm.com/images/valentinemapjuly2010.jpg
"The results from drilling and field work to date demonstrate that the gold system at the Leprechaun Deposit has very good size potential," said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon PGM. Mr. Walford further noted, "The mineralizing system is robust at the Leprechaun Deposit with gold now found in the granitic rocks up to 300 m west of the sedimentary contact. This deposit is one of several gold zones and occurrences noted along the 30 km of strike we have on the property. Our long term goal is to develop resources with open pit potential and underground potential relying upon tightly focused drilling and geological work."
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Core True
From To Width Width Gold Gold Cut to
Best Results Section (m) (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (oz/t) 58 g/t
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VL-10-180 9,887.5 93 101 8 5.3 1.05 0.03 -
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VL-10-182 10,337.5 54 56 2 2 1.69 0.05 -
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" 10,337.5 66 69 3 3 1.12 0.03 -
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" 10,337.5 81 92 11 6.5 1.84 0.05 -
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VL-10-183 10,350 3.6 5 1.4 1.4 2.08 0.06 -
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" 10,350 41 53 12 10 0.64 0.02 -
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" 10,350 59 66 7 7 0.96 0.03 -
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" 10,350 75 89 14 11 1.83 0.05 -
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" 10,350 128 133 5 3 2.76 0.08 -
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VL-10-184 10,350 13 27 14 13.8 2.00 0.06 -
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" 10,350 46 54 8 7.9 2.06 0.06 -
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VL-10-185 10,350 1.5 7 5.5 4.6 1.53 0.04 -
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" 10,350 17 24 7 7 5.79 0.17 -
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VL-10-186 10,375 2 5 3 3 9.61 0.28 -
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" 10,375 18 24 6 6 2.57 0.08 -
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" 10,375 39 45 6 5 1.53 0.04 -
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VL-10-190 10,425 29 34 5 2.5 2.23 0.07 -
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" 10,425 44 45 1 0.5 8.7 0.26 -
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" 10,425 53 60 7 4.8 1.9 0.06 -
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" 10,425 77 83 6 4 22.75 0.67 14.49
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includes 10,425 78 82 4 2.65 33.54 0.98 21.15
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Includes 10,425 81 82 1 0.66 107.58 3.16 58
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(1) Hole VL-10-181 intersected no significant values, 1 of the reported
assay values was cut to the historical value of 58 g/t Au
All holes were drilled normal to the strike of mineralization, with shallower holes typically having a -45 degree dip and deeper holes having a -75 to -85 degree dip. Holes VL-10-180 and -181 on section 9887.5 were drilled to test the western extension of mineralization encountered in VL-10-178. Mineralization encountered is continuous from VL-10-178 and -179 and open to the west and down dip. Hole VL-10-182 on section 10337.5 had visible gold noted during core logging. Three zones of mineralization were intersected, the uppermost interval is the down dip flat extension from VL-10-173 and -174 which are on the same section. Holes VL-10-183, -184 and -185 are located on section 10,350 and intersected multiple stacked intervals of quartz with numerous occurrences of visible gold noted.
Hole VL-10-190 on section 10,425 had 20 flecks of visible gold noted during core logging and returned 33.54 g/t (0.98 oz/ton) across 4 m (13.1 feet). This intersection is of particular importance as it defines a new zone of high grade mineralization.
Summer 2010 Drill Program
Marathon is drill validating the 2 kilometer northeast-southwest trending zone of mineralization that hosts the Leprechaun Deposit. Mineralization remains open along strike and down dip, with drilling focused on finding additional lenses of high grade mineralization. The drill program continues to provide geological information on the gold-bearing vein sets, which helps to define the limits of gold mineralization.
Valentine Lake Background
The Valentine Lake Gold Property and Leprechaun Deposit were defined by previous operators with 23,872 metres of drilling in 139 holes up to the end of 2009. Widely spaced historical holes intersected significant gold mineralization over a strike length of 2 km. Marathon is drilling on closely spaced holes in order to gain a better geological understanding from the ongoing drill program.
Generalized Geology - Leprechaun Deposit and On-Strike Extensions
The Leprechaun Gold Deposit is hosted by sub horizontal and steeply dipping quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veins that occur within a major regional fault zone that strikes for over 30 km across the Valentine Lake Gold Project. At the southwest end of the property, gold mineralization has been identified by drilling in a zone that is up to 300 meters wide and 2 km along strike. In this area, detailed drilling has occurred along only 550 meters of the structure. The potential to improve the resource and introduce hanging wall mineralization into the up-coming resource estimate has significantly increased as a result of a better understanding of the orientation and good continuity of the mineralized veins near surface.
Closely spaced drilling has resulted in a better structural understanding of the mineralization and shallowly dipping mineralization is now recognized to extend beyond the boundaries of the main steeply dipping mineralized structure and into the hanging wall. It is possible that some of the gold intercepts occurring in the hanging wall well away from the main zone and best interpreted as sub horizontal vein sets may prove to be so with further drilling.
Drilling is focused on finding extensions of high grade lenses along the mineralized trend. Presently up to hole VL-10-202, approximately 4,000 metres have been completed of the current 8,000 meter program. The current plan is to continue moving the drill to the northeast and fill the 50-100 meter wide gaps between current drilling and historical drill holes VL-05-115 and VL-99-7 which intersected multiple zones including 2.96 g/t gold across 11.1 meters and 2.41 g/t gold across 11.8 m, respectively.
Leprechaun Gold 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 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 metre 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 Gold Deposit is open at depth and along strike. The resource estimate for the Leprechaun Gold 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. Duplicate assays were made on all assays above 30 g/t. Assay results for the planned updated resource estimate will be determined by a metallic screening process to be conducted at a later date.
David Good, P.Geo., Vice President 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 actively developing resources in the immediate vicinity of the Marathon Deposit to expand the 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 the development of additional nearby resources. Marathon's optimized P+P reserve of approximately 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 approximately 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.
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.
%SEDAR: 00020574E
For further information: David Leng, P.Geo: Direct: +1.416.849.3432, Mobile: +1.905.537.5377, dleng@marathonpgm.com
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