Marathon discovers multiple high-grade mineralized veins 300 meters north of the Leprechaun Gold Deposit

TORONTO, June 18, 2014 /CNW/ - Marathon Gold Corp. ("Marathon" or the "Company") (TSX: MOZ) today announced the positive results of initial prospecting and trenching in an area located 300 meters north of the current NE end of the Leprechaun Gold deposit and 500 meters north of the Valentine Lake thrust fault (Figure 1). This newly discovered zone of high-grade gold mineralization is exposed in two 100 meter long trenches covering a 200 meter NE strike length. The new gold zone overlies a magnetic low zone interpreted as a splay fault off the main Valentine Lake thrust fault (Figure 1). Multiple stacked quartz-tourmaline-pyrite-gold veins exposed throughout the trenches returned grab outcrop samples up to 41.34 g/t Au, 33.31 g/t Au, 32.12 g/t Au, 29.17 g/t Au, 26.00 g/t Au and 21.42 g/t Au. Future prospecting and trenching will focus in this area as well as NE into the Sprite and Marathon Zones as Marathon continues to define drill-ready targets for future development of additional near-surface open-pit resources.

Highlights include:

• Discovery of multiple high-grade gold-bearing quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veining in trenches located 300 meters north of the current Leprechaun Gold deposit resource boundary and overlying a magnetic low region interpreted as a splay fault of the main Valentine Lake thrust fault.
  
  
• Outcrop samples of the newly exposed QTP-Au veining returned high-grade gold results including: 41.34 g/t Au, 33.31 g/t Au, 32.12 g/t Au, 29.17 g/t Au, 26.00 g/t Au, 21.42 g/t Au, 9.03 g/t Au, 9.17 g/t Au, 10.26 g/t Au and 5.08 g/t Au.
  
  
• Systematic prospecting and trenching continue to discover new gold-rich QTP zones and this exploration work will continue throughout the summer focused along the entire Sprite Zone as well as north-east into the Marathon area where good gold values were found in extensive QTP-rich surface veining last year. The goal of this work is to define more future drilling targets for ongoing development of near-surface open pit resources in the Valentine Lake property.

"The discovery of this new area of significant gold bearing QTP veining located 300 meters north of the Leprechaun Gold deposit current resource boundary, overlying a magnetic low interpreted as a main splay fault off the regional Valentine Lake thrust fault, and outside of any previous drilling, is very exciting", said Phillip Walford, President and CEO. "We will continue with our aggressive and cost-effective program of prospecting and trenching in the 2014 exploration season with the goal of uncovering additional new areas of significant gold mineralization and delineating future drilling targets along a 17 km long corridor of mineralization.

All of the samples were fire assayed at Eastern Analytical Laboratory Ltd., in Springdale, Newfoundland.

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 is a Toronto based gold resource development company focused on the Valentine Lake property in central Newfoundland. Marathon's mission is to rapidly move the Valentine Lake project towards advanced exploration and pre-development stages. For more information visit: www.marathon-gold.com.

About the Valentine Lake Project

The Valentine Lake property, owned 100% by Marathon Gold Corp., hosts two well defined gold deposits with NI 43-101 compliant resources: the Leprechaun Gold Deposit and the Victory Gold Deposit. The Leprechaun Gold Deposit is located near the south-western end of the Valentine Lake property, and the Victory Gold Deposit is located 13 kilometers along strike to the north-east.  These gold deposits form part of a 23 km long, highly prospective gold-bearing mineralized corridor focused along the Valentine Lake Thrust Fault.

The Leprechaun Gold Deposit has a NI 43-101 compliant Open Pit and Underground Resource (refer to August 1, 2013 news release). The Open Pit Resource is Measured 3.5 million tonnes containing 247,000 oz Au, and Indicated 6.2 million tonnes containing 412,000 oz Au, and Inferred 1.2 million tonnes at 1.82 g/t Au containing 71,000 oz Au. The Underground Resource is Measured 108,000 tonnes containing 17,000 oz Au, and Indicated 764,000 tonnes containing 100,000 oz Au, and Inferred 349,000 tonnes containing 69,000 oz Au. As a result of favorable drilling results in 2013 and 2014, the Sprite Area, which is adjacent to the Leprechaun Gold Deposit, will be a focus of continued exploration this year. The Sprite Area adjoins the Leprechaun Gold Deposit and recent promising drilling is located 1.5 km to the north east of the Leprechaun Gold Deposit.

The Victory Gold Deposit (formerly Valentine East Hill) has an Open Pit Resource (refer to August 1, 2013 news release). The Open Pit Resource is Indicated 761,000 tonnes containing 41,000 oz Au, and Inferred 199,000 tonnes containing 9,000 oz Au. Both deposits are open to expansion.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Except for statements of historical fact relating to Marathon Gold Corp., 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 Corp.'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 Corp.