Marathon Gold Corporation  (TSX: MOZ) is pleased to announce continued drilling success with the intersection of new wide and continuous intervals of gold mineralization at open-pit depths in both the footwall and hanging wall margins of the main mineralized corridor of the Marathon Deposit (Figure 1 & 2). Drill holes MA-18-305 and MA-18-308 were both highly successful in penetrating wide intervals of high grade gold within en-echelon stacked QTP veining including 1.41 g/t Au over 105.0 meters with 4.59 g/t Au over 6.0 meters, 7.65 g/t Au over 4.0 meters, 4.90 g/t Au over 2.0 meters and 3.51 g/t Au over 2.0 meters in MA-18-305, and 2.67 g/t Au over 42.0 meters including 12.84 g/t Au over 4.0 meters, 7.23 g/t Au over 2.0 meters and 7.22 g/t Au over 2.0 meters in MA-18-308. These infill holes, as well as the other new drill holes, are to decrease the open pit strip ratio and move inferred material into the measured and indicated resource categories. 

“These great gold intercepts are expected to add significantly to the upgrading of the next Marathon resource update.” said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon Gold. “The current program of infill drilling certainly appears to be achieving our primary objectives of adding new ounces of gold to the global resource, moving inferred material into measured and indicated resource category, and decreasing open-pit strip ratios as we move towards a Pre-Feasibility Study.”

TABLE 1: Significant assay intervals, Marathon Deposit, Valentine Lake Gold Camp.

*Cut to 45 g/t Au.

Figure 1: Schematic cross section 17340 showing MA-18-305, Marathon Deposit

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Figure 2: Location of drill hole collars MA-18-304 to MA-18-308, Marathon Deposit

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Acknowledgments

Marathon acknowledges the financial support of the Junior Exploration Assistance Program, Department of Natural Resources, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Quality Assurance-Quality Control

Sherry Dunsworth, M.Sc., P. Geo., Senior VP of Exploration, Marathon’s Qualified Person, has reviewed the contents for accuracy and has approved this press release on behalf of Marathon. Thorough QA/QC protocols are followed including the insertion of blanks and standards at regular intervals in each sample batch. Drill core is cut in half with one half retained at site, the other half tagged and sent to Eastern Analytical Limited in Springdale, Newfoundland. All reported core samples are analyzed for Au by fire assay (30g) with AA finish. All samples above 0.10 g/t Au in economically interesting intervals are further assayed using metallic screen to mitigate the presence of coarse gold. Significant mineralized intervals are reported in Table 1 as core lengths and estimated true thickness (90-95% of core length).

About Marathon

Marathon Gold Corp. is a high-quality growth-oriented gold development company with a long-term strategy of moving the 100% owned Valentine Lake Gold Camp through to production in central Newfoundland. Marathon recently completed a positive PEA that shows an average annual production of 188,500 ounces per year over the first 10 years, payback of 2.8 years, NPV (5%) of $367 million (USD) and an IRR of 25.3%, all after-tax. The Valentine Lake Gold Camp currently hosts four near-surface, mainly pit-shell constrained, deposits with measured and indicated resources totaling 2,137,100 oz. of gold at 1.99 g/t and inferred resources totaling 1,104,800 oz. of gold at 1.99 g/t. Most of the resources occur at the Marathon and Leprechaun Deposits. All the deposits are open to expansion. Marathon’s 240 sq. km sized Valentine Lake property has multiple exploration targets to be explored in 2018.