Marathon Gold Completes Drilling Program With Multiple Intersections of High Grades 24.53 g/t Au (cut) over 2.7 meters (TT) and 15.47 g/t Au (cut) over 3.6 meters (TT)

TORONTO, May 13, 2013 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corporation ("Marathon" or the "Company") (MOZ: TSX) today announced new multiple high-grade gold intersections in the Leprechaun Gold Deposit. The drilling successfully targeted both down-dip underground and near-surface hanging wall high-grade gold zones. The winter drilling campaign is now completed at the Leprechaun Gold Deposit.

Highlights include:

• Main Zone high-grade gold intercept of 24.53 g/t Au (cut) over 2.7 meters (TT) with 35.00 g/t Au (cut) over 80.56 (uncut) 0.9 meters (TT) in VL13-537
  
  
• Main Zone high-grade gold intercept of 15.47 g/t Au (cut) over 3.6 meters (TT) with 35.00 g/t Au over 63.03 (uncut) 0.9 meters (TT) in VL13-540
  
  
• Main Zone high-grade gold intercepts of 10.96 g/t Au over 3.6 meters (TT) with 20.50 g/t Au over 0.9 meters (TT), 8.50 g/t Au over 2.7 meters (TT) with 14.38 g/t Au over 0.9 meters (TT), and 5.11 g/t Au over 3.6 meters (TT) with 17.37 g/t Au over 0.9 meters (TT)  in VL13-536
  
  
• Additional significant Main Zone high-grade gold intercept of 4.32 g/t Au over 2.85 meters (TT) with 11.82 g/t Au over 0.95 meters (TT) in VL-13-535
  
  
• Hanging Wall Zone high grade gold intercepts of 9.45 g/t Au over 5.0 meters (TT) with 22.56 g/t Au over 2.0 meters (TT) in VL-13-537, and 3.25 g/t Au over 3.0 meters (TT) with 9.43 g/t Au over 1.0 meter (TT) in VL-13-536

"The 2013 drilling program was highly successful in delineating an area of high grade gold over good widths in the Leprechaun Gold Deposit which is important for the continued expansion of the underground resource. The focused drilling program at Valentine East was also equally successful in identifying an area for a potential open pit resource located 13km from the Leprechaun deposit and just off of our access road. The Leprechaun Deposit is open to depth and the resource is in its early stages of development, so there is a lot of potential in these zones as well as Sprite, Valentine East and the J. Frank zone. The resource estimates for Valentine East and Leprechaun Gold Deposit are underway and are expected to be completed in the 3^rd quarter" said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon Gold.

TABLE 1: Significant Assay Intervals from drill holes at the Leprechaun Gold Deposit.

The generalized 3-D model of the Leprechaun Gold Deposit showing all significant gold intercepts is available at http://www.corebox.net/properties/valentine-lake-project.

The Valentine Lake Project is 100% owned by Marathon Gold Corporation (July 9, 2012 news release). The 10,000 meter winter 2013 diamond drilling program announced on January 15, 2013 has been completed.

All of the samples were analyzed at Eastern Analytical Laboratory Ltd., in Springdale, Newfoundland. Samples were assayed using lead collection fire assay with AA (atomic absorption) finish. Due to the coarse nature of the gold at the Leprechaun Gold Deposit, the metallic screening method is used on economically important intersections using standard fire assay techniques. The reported values in this release are fire assay results.

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 the Valentine Lake Project

Marathon Gold Corporation is the 100% owner of the Valentine Lake Project. The Leprechaun Gold Deposit is situated at the south-western end of the Valentine Lake Project, and the Valentine East Gold Zone is located 17 kilometers along strike running in a north-easterly direction.  The J. Frank Zone, which currently extends over an area in excess of 1.4 kilometers in length and 250 meters in width, is located up to 0.5 kilometers southwest along strike from the current Resource boundary of the Leprechaun Gold Deposit. These gold occurrences form part of a 23 kilometer long, highly prospective gold-bearing mineralized corridor focused along the Valentine Lake thrust fault.

About the Leprechaun Gold Deposit

The Leprechaun Gold Deposit has a NI 43-101 compliant Measured Resource of 3,033,000 tonnes grading 2.30 g/t AU and Indicated Resource of 6,505,000 tonnes grading 2.19 g/t Au, for a total estimated 682,000 ounces of Au (October 22, 2012 news release). The Inferred Resource is 1,959,000 tonnes grading 2.30 g/t Au, for an estimated 145,000 ounces of Au. This Resource was estimated using a 0.5 g/t Au minimum cut-off for open pit resources and 1.5 g/t Au for underground resources. The Leprechaun Gold Deposit is open at depth and along strike.

About Marathon Gold Corporation

Marathon Gold Corporation is a North American gold resource development company, with projects located in the mining friendly province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the prolific Coeur d'Alene Mining District of Idaho and the historic gold rich Greenhorn District of Oregon, USA.  Marathon has a project pipeline consisting of early stage exploration to advanced resource development projects. Marathon is continually evaluating new gold resource development projects of merit that are located within the Americas.  Marathon's focused and low-cost approach to exploration and resource development has an established record of delivering rapid growth.  For more information 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 of new drill holes VL-13-535 to VL-13-540, Leprechaun Gold Deposit. (CNW Group/Marathon Gold Corporation)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20130513_C5995_PHOTO_EN_26620.jpg