TORONTO , Aug. 10, 2015 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corporation (MOZ-TSX) ("Marathon") announced today its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015 .

Highlights:

• At June 30, 2015 Marathon had $3.5 million in cash and $3.2 million in working capital.
  
  
• Marathon completed a successful non-brokered private placement of units and flow-through shares, which raised gross proceeds of $2.6 million in the period ended June 30, 2015 and an additional $0.8 million in July 2015 . The proceeds of this financing will be used to fund exploration work at the Valentine Gold Camp.
  
  Marathon has resumed its exploration program of prospecting, trenching and drilling, focused on identifying and drilling targets with the potential to add open pit resource ounces. The initial results of this work are expected shortly.
  
  
• Marathon completed initial open pit and underground resource estimates for the Marathon and Sprite Deposits, and an updated open pit and underground resource estimate for the Victory Deposit. These resources incorporated the results of the 2015 winter drilling program and two additional drilling programs completed in 2014 totaling 13,203 meters.
  
  With the completion of these new resource estimates, the total measured and indicated gold resource for the Valentine Gold Camp amounts to 1,060,100 ounces at a grade of 2.20 g/t, with an additional inferred resource of 200,000 ounces at a grade of 2.83 g/t.  This represents a 30% increase in measured and indicated contained gold since the previous resource estimate, with the majority of this growth related to the Marathon Deposit, a highly prospective area of the Valentine Gold Camp.  The mineral resources developed to date in all areas of the Valentine Gold Camp are relatively insensitive to fluctuations in the price of gold within a range of US $1,100 to US $1,350 per ounce.
  
  
• Metallurgical testing on a representative sample of mineralized material from the Leprechaun Deposit concluded that direct sulphide-gold flotation followed by conventional cyanide leaching, carbon-in-pulp, and electrowinning would provide an overall recovery in the range of 92.8% to 95%, an increase in metallurgical recoveries associated with Leprechaun. These recoveries have not been optimized and may be improved by additional testing.
  
  
• Marathon continues to seek opportunities to dispose of its interest in the Golden Chest property. At June 30, 2015 , Marathon wrote down the carrying value of Golden Chest to its estimated recoverable value of $2,512,352 and incurred a non-cash impairment loss of $1,073,833 . Excluding this non-cash charge, Marathon incurred a loss from continuing operations for the six months ended June 30, 2015 amounting to $507,112 , compared to $587,716 in the same period in 2014.

Operating results:

Marathon's results of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015 and 2014 are summarized below.  Marathon focused its exploration efforts in 2015 exclusively on the Valentine Gold Camp and incurred minimal costs related to its non-core properties.

This press release should be read in conjunction with Marathon's unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2015 and the related Management's Discussion and Analysis, both of which are available on www.sedar.com. 

About Marathon Gold Corporation Marathon is a Toronto based gold resource company focused on its 100% owned Valentine Gold Camp located in central Newfoundland . The Valentine Gold Camp currently hosts four near-surface, mainly pit-shell constrained, gold resources totaling 1,060,100 oz. gold at 2.20 g/t (Measured & Indicated) and 200,000 oz. gold at 2.83 g/t (Inferred), (April   2015). These resources, open along strike and to depth, cover less than 6% of the total length of the highly prospective Valentine Lake Thrust Fault and associated splay faults which host the majority of the gold mineralization within the property.