Marathon Gold Announces $3.4M Private Placement with Stillwater Mining
Company

TORONTO, Dec. 23 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corporation (MOZ-TSX) ("Marathon Gold") today announced that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement of common shares to Stillwater Mining Company ("Stillwater") for gross proceeds of $3,366,700 (the "Offering").  The funds raised from the Offering will be used to further the programs at Golden Chest Project in Idaho and Valentine Lake Gold Project in Central Newfoundland.

Under the terms of the Offering, Stillwater will subscribe for 2,570,000 common shares at a price of $1.31 per share, representing a 15% discount to the five day volume-weighted average trading price of the Marathon Gold shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX").  There are no commissions associated with the Offering.  All of the shares issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a statutory four month hold period.  Closing of the Offering is anticipated to take place on or about December 29, 2010, subject to receipt of necessary regulatory (including TSX) approvals. Upon completion of the Offering, Stillwater will own approximately 15% of the outstanding Marathon Gold shares.

In conjunction with the Offering, Marathon will grant Stillwater the option to acquire up to 15% of the securities issued in each subsequent financing completed within a period of 36 months following closing of the Offering, upon and subject to the prevailing terms of each such subsequent financing. 

Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon Gold, commented, "Marathon Gold has very aggressive plans to expand the resources for both the Valentine Lake Gold Project and the Golden Chest Project in 2011.  We are pleased that Stillwater will be making a significant investment in the company at this time, as the funding will enable us to immediately advance both of our core projects."   

About Marathon Gold Corporation:
Marathon Gold Corporation is one of Canada's newest gold resource development companies, with projects located in the mining friendly province of Newfoundland, Labrador and North Idaho in the USA.  Marathon Gold has a tiered project pipeline consisting of early stage exploration to advanced resource development projects which can be built into mineable reserves.  Marathon Gold is continually evaluating new gold resource development projects of merit that are located within the Americas.  Marathon Gold's focused and low-cost approach to resource development and exploration has an established record of delivering rapid growth.  Marathon Gold is the operator of the Valentine Lake Project under the sub-option and joint venture agreement ("OJVA") between Mountain Lake Resources Inc. and Marathon Gold owns a 50% interest in Golden Chest LLC, owner of the Golden Chest mine in North Idaho.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Except for statements of historical fact relating to Marathon Gold, 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's public filings, which may be accessed at www.sedar.com.  Marathon Gold offers no assurance that the Offering will be completed upon the above-referenced terms or at all.  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.

For further information:

David Leng, P.Geo:.
Tel:  [phone]
[email protected]