Marathon Gold Step-Out Drills 2.11g/t Au over 27.5 meters (TT) Expanding Marathon Zone to the Southwest, Valentine Lake Gold Camp Drilling Resumes at the Marathon Zone

TORONTO, Jan. 12, 2015 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corporation ("Marathon" or the "Company") (TSX: MOZ) today announced positive results from the remaining 2014 drill holes (MA-14-023 to MA-14-025) 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 Lake 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 Lake Gold Camp.

Drill holes MA-14-023 to MA-14-025, located in the southwestern portion of the growing Marathon Zone, intersected wide intervals of gold mineralization with narrower high-grade ore shoots. The 2014 drilling, totaling 4,133 meters of from 25 drill holes, has outlined a gold mineralized corridor with a strike length of over 200 meters, a true width ranging from 50 to 100 meters, and a vertical depth of more than 200 meters. The gold mineralized corridor is currently open along strike as well as to depth (Figure 1).

The Winter 2015 drilling campaign will focus on developing new near-surface open pit resources at the Marathon Zone with possible testing of new mineralization found in late 2014 at the Triangle and Narrows areas that are along strike to the north east of the Marathon Zone. The 2015 drilling campaign will commence in the southwest of the Marathon Zone where MA-14-024 just intersected 27.5 meters (true thickness) grading 2.11 g/t Au down dip and along strike. Follow up drilling is justified at Victory and Sprite based on the 2014 drilling results however the priority now is to delineate the potential open pit material at Marathon Zone. All of the work programs for 2015 will be executed within the context of maintaining a strong cash position.

Highlights (all drill intercepts reported at true thickness):

• The step-out drill hole MA-14-024 with 2.11 g/t Au over 27.5 meters including 3.72 g/t Au over 1.0 meters, 10.99 g/t Au over 0.5 meters, and 10.43 g/t Au over 0.5 meters, confirms the southwestern continuation of the mineralized corridor and proves that this gold-rich zone is open along strike.
• The 2014 drilling in the Marathon Zone has intersected multiple vertical stacked, dominantly shallow southwest dipping tensional gold-bearing QTP veining that defines a near vertical mineralized corridor currently up to 100 meters wide, more than 200 meters in strike length, and up to 200 meters in depth. The Marathon Zone is open to depth and along strike.
• The 2015 drilling program has commenced at the Marathon Zone with the immediate aim of increasing the strike length and quickly developing a significant new open-pit resource(s) in this area proximal to the Valentine Lake Thrust Fault, Valentine Lake Gold Camp.
• Additional 2015 drilling will focus on exploring and developing gold resources at the Narrows and Triangle Zones located up to 2km along strike from the Marathon Zone, as well as within the Sprite Zone and Victory Gold Deposit.

"The recently discovered Marathon Zone has been expanding with each drill hole to date, and the first holes of the 2015 drilling campaign will target to the southwest of the zone where widening, shallow southwest plunging mineralization has just returned the 2.11 g/t Au over 27.5 meters. We are fortunate in having a lot of drill targets and can selective in our drilling to target  those with the best potential." said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon. "2014 has been a very successful year for us in advancing the project with two new zones developed, Sprite and Marathon, several new surface exposures of gold mineralization found and all aided by advancements in the geological understanding of the large gold mineralizing system on the property. In addition, the metallurgical testing conducted in 2014 gives consistent recoveries above 90% using standard methods of milling and leaching. We look forward to further advances in the project in 2015"

TABLE 1: Significant assay intervals from the Marathon Zone drill holes MA-14-023 to MA-14-025.

DDH	Section	From	To	Core Length (m)	TT (m)*	Gold (g/t) (uncut)
MA-14-023	17200	6	9	3	1.2	2.22
		75	79	4	1.6	1.64
MA-14-024	17170	51	54	3	1.5	1.64
		59	62	3	1.5	1.19
		69	124	55	27.5	2.11
including		84	85	1	0.5	10.99
including		104	105	1	0.5	10.43
including		121	123	2	1.0	13.72
MA-14-025	17210	14	34	20	10.0	1.87
including		16	18	2	1.0	5.47
		52	55	3	1.5	2.05
		62	65	3	1.5	1.44
		72	75	3	1.5	1.99
		102	105	3	1.5	1.62

*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 Lake Gold Camp located in central Newfoundland. The Valentine Lake 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 Lake 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 new DDH's MA-14-023 to MA-14-025, and the previously released DDH's MA-14-001 to MA-14-022, Marathon Zone, Valentine Gold Camp. (CNW Group/Marathon Gold Corporation)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150112_C5976_PHOTO_EN_10101.jpg

Christopher Haldane, Investor Relations Manager, Tel: [phone], E-mail: [email protected]