Marathon PGM Corporation: Corporate and Project Update

TORONTO, June 10 /CNW/ - Marathon PGM Corporation (MAR-TSX) ("Marathon") today announced near-term plans for the Marathon PGM-Cu Project ("Marathon Project"), Geordie Lake PGM-Cu Project ("Geordie Lake Deposit") and Valentine Lake Gold Project ("Valentine Lake").

"We are moving the Marathon Project through the financing and permitting steps and improving the resource base of both Valentine and Geordie Lake," commented Phillip Walford, P.Geo., President and CEO. "This is our busiest year to date and we have lots on the go."

Highlights:

    
    -   financing and permitting the Marathon Project remains management's
        number one priority
    -   3 smelters have expressed interest in the concentrate and have
        requested negotiations
    -   drilling and geophysical surveying at Valentine Lake started in late
        May and will continue until early autumn
    -   mapping at Geordie Lake will test on-strike extensions of
        mineralization outside of the current resource and collection of
        baseline environmental data
    

Marathon Project: Financing

Marathon's CEO and Chairman recently travelled to China to visit with parties interested in the Marathon Project. The Chinese meetings reflect on-going progress by Marathon's management to address the project financing step.

In 2009 Marathon carried out a number of mini-pilot plant ("MPP") tests in Sudbury at Xstrata Process Support to determine the behaviour of concentrate produced from Marathon's ore. The concentrate produced from this testing was sent to 4 smelters located in North America, Europe and Asia for evaluation testing. Three of four smelters have expressed serious interest in the concentrate as it is a high value precious metal-copper concentrate containing significant quantities of PGM and gold with negligible penalty elements. Securing a smelter contract would represent an important step forward and would support the project financing.

Marathon Project: Permitting

Permitting the Marathon Project is on track and proceeding through the formal regulatory review process. Phillip Walford and Ray Mason, Marathon's vice president of Operations, recently met with the Pic River First Nation and the town of Marathon for community consultations and received strong local support for the project. The Marathon Project represents near term potential for employment of several hundred workers on the North Shore of Lake Superior and surrounding communities. Marathon is gathering feedback from the public regarding the proposed development of the Marathon Mine.

Geordie Lake Deposit

An updated resource estimate delivered higher metals, tonnes and grade, which was largely based on drilling completed in Q1. Marathon will carry out trenching and mapping to the north, where mineralization has been identified at surface over a 2 km strike length, in the summer of 2010. This area presents outstanding potential for resource expansion, for while mineralization has been identified at surface, it has yet to be drill tested.

The Geordie Lake Deposit is being explored as a potential source for supplemental ore for the proposed Marathon open pit mine which could potentially extend the projected operational life. Marathon will begin collecting baseline environmental data for the Geordie Lake Deposit this summer.

Valentine Lake Gold Project

Drilling is currently underway at Valentine Lake and will continue throughout the summer. Drilling will focus on in-filling gaps at the Leprechaun Gold Deposit, exploring on-strike potential to the northeast of the deposit and testing the Valentine East prospect, on strike 13 km to the northeast.

Drilling results will be released regularly throughout the course of the summer and well into the autumn.

Phillip Walford, P. Geo., President and CEO, is Marathon's Qualified Person in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 with respect to this release. Mr. Walford has reviewed the contents for accuracy and has approved this press release on behalf of Marathon.

About Marathon PGM Corporation:

Marathon is actively developing resources in the immediate vicinity of the Marathon Deposit to expand the life of the planned large tonnage, open pit mining operation. The Marathon Deposit is one of the largest PGM-Cu reserves in Canada and is expected to grow with the development of additional nearby resources. Marathon's optimized P+P reserve of approximately 91.45 million tonnes grading 0.832 g/t Pd, 0.237 g/t Pt, 0.085 g/t Au, 0.247% Cu and 1.44 g/t Ag, contains approximately 2.44 million ounces of Pd, 696,000 ounces of Pt, 251,000 ounces of Au, 497 million lbs of Cu and 4.23 million ounces of Ag. Marathon also has development and exploration stage properties in southeastern Manitoba and western Newfoundland respectively. Marathon's Management plans to build on its experience through the advancement of its properties and by examining other strategic opportunities.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Except for statements of historical fact relating to Marathon, 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 Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2009.

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.

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For further information: David Leng, P.Geo., Direct: +1.416.849.3432, Mobile: [phone], [email protected]