TORONTO, ON , Feb. 17, 2015 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corporation ("Marathon" or the "Company") (MOZ.TO) today announced positive results from the drill holes MA-15-028 to MA-15-032 into the 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 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 identical in appearance to gold-bearing QTP veining found elsewhere throughout the Valentine Gold Camp.

Drill holes MA-15-028 and MA-15-032, collared into the southwestern portion of the growing Marathon Zone, intersected wide intervals of gold mineralization with narrower high-grade ore shoots. The best intercepts included 1.57 g/t Au over 32.9 meters true thickness (TT) with 7.17 g/t Au over 2.1 meters (TT) in MA-15-030, and  0.93 g/t Au over 56.7 meters (TT) with 2.71 g/t Au over 6.3 meters (TT) and 3.77 g/t Au over 2.1 meters (TT) in in MA-15-029. Drilling to date, including drill holes MA-15-033 to MA-15-036 with assays pending, has now outlined a gold mineralized 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.

Winter 2015 drilling is focused on expanding the strike length of the gold mineralized corridors at the Marathon Zone. The addition of new drill holes adds to the growing database and will support the development of near-surface open pit resources for this important new gold deposit within the Valentine Gold Camp. All of the planned work programs for 2015 will be executed within the context of preserving our strong cash position.

Highlights (all drill intercepts reported at true thickness):

• Wide gold intervals in step-out drill holes MA-15-030 with 1.57 g/t Au over 32.9 meters including 7.17 g/t Au over 2.1 meters, MA-15-029 with 0.93 g/t Au over 56.7 meters including 2.71 g/t A over 6.3 meters, MA-15-031 with 1.52 g/t Au over 11.2 meters, and MA-15-032 with 4.54 g/t Au over 4.2 meters with 15.31 g/t Au over 0.7 meters.
• The intersection of multiple stacked, gold-bearing quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veining in all 36 drill holes completed to date in the Marathon Zone, including the latest drill holes with assays pending, proves that the Marathon Zone is open along strike and to depth 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.
• Step out drilling to the SW and NE along the Marathon Zone mineralized corridor confirms that this gold-rich zone is open along strike and 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 (see Figure 1).
• The aim of the continuing winter 2015 drilling program is to increase the strike length of the Marathon Zone with the aim of rapidly developing a significant new open-pit resource(s) in this area proximal to the Valentine Lake Thrust Fault, Valentine Gold Camp.
• All of the eleven holes completed to date during the 2015 drilling program have intersected either QTP veining in the Main Zone of the Marathon Zone gold deposit or they have intersected a secondary zone developing to the south-east of the Main Zone.
• The Valentine Gold Camp currently has a resource from 2013 of 816,000 oz Au (M&I) at a grade of 2.24 g/t and 149,000 oz Au (Inferred) at a grade of 2.64 g/t, almost all of which is open pit resource in the Leprechaun Deposit. The next resource, planned for the second quarter of 2015, will include the 2014 and winter 2015 drilling and involve an updated resource for the Victory Gold deposit and first ever resources for the newly discovered Sprite and Marathon Gold deposits.

"We are very excited with the rapid development of the Marathon Deposit from a prospector's showing last summer to a robust gold system in a place where no previous exploration work had been done," said Phillip Walford , President and CEO of Marathon. Adding, "The continued success is a testimony to the skill of our crew and the high potential of the property. We expect 2015 to be an exciting year for Marathon and have just scratched the surface as far as this property goes with only a fraction of favorable area worked in any measurable detail."

TABLE 1: Significant assay intervals from the Marathon Zone drill holes MA-15-028 to MA-15-032

*TT-Denotes true thickness

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 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 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 DDH's MA-15-028 to MA-15-032, previously released DDH's MA-14-001 to MA-15-027, and DDH's MA-15-033 to MA-15-036 with assays pending, Marathon Zone, Valentine Gold Camp. (CNW Group/Marathon Gold Corporation)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150217_C6324_PHOTO_EN_12208.jpg