Marathon Gold Receives Funding From the RDC for Metallurgical Testing at the Valentine Gold Camp

The previous project, which was funded in part by financial assistance from RDC, successfully identified a preliminary process for treating the Leprechaun deposit including preconcentration to significantly reduce the size and cost of downstream process facilities. The total potential gold recoveries ranged from 92.8% to 95% and have yet to be fully optimized.

The 2016 metallurgical testing, which is underway and expected to be complete in the third quarter, has two objectives. The first part of the program will test a low-cost heap leach process for treating a portion of the lower-grade resources from both Leprechaun and Marathon deposits by directly leaching the crushed mineralized material. If acceptable gold extraction conditions can be developed for this process option, the potential advantage is a simple, low-cost extraction process that, in many cases, allows for processing of even lower gold cut-off grades from the resource, increasing the extractable gold from the deposit. The initial technology development for this project is based on developing the leaching chemistry at different crush sizes to determine the leaching kinetics, ultimate gold recoveries and reagent consumption rates.

The development of a metallurgical process for mineralized material from the Marathon Deposit, the second largest resource, is the second part of this project. The development of the process for the Marathon Deposit will build on the technology developed in 2014 for the Leprechaun deposit. Process flow sheet options include gravity recovery, flotation and cyanidation of the flotation concentrate and optionally the flotation tailings. Management expects that the successful development of a gold recovery process from the higher grade Marathon resource and the heap leaching of lower grade Marathon/Leprechaun resources will help reduce overall capital and operating costs at the project.

"Marathon Gold appreciates the continuing support that RDC has provided for the metallurgical testing. This support has helped us to significantly advance the technical merits of the project in these challenging times. We also appreciate the support we continue to receive through the Junior Exploration Program funded by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, which has added $100,000 a year to our exploration budgets for the last 5 years. It is really good to be operating in a province that is so supportive," commented Phillip Walford, President of Marathon. "If heap leaching is viable, it will have the potential to dramatically change the economics of the project by reducing capital costs and operational costs as well as lowering the cut-off grade, potentially resulting in more gold from the same-sized pit. This program will also confirm the viability of the Marathon gold mineralization for conventional gold extraction."

About Marathon Gold Corporation

Marathon is a Toronto based gold resource company focused on its 100% owned Valentine Gold Camp located in central Newfoundland. The Valentine Gold Camp currently hosts four near-surface, mainly pit-shell constrained, gold resources totaling 1,060,100 oz. gold at 2.20 g/t (Measured & Indicated) and 200,000 oz. gold at 2.85 g/t (Inferred), (April 2015). These resources, open along strike and to depth, cover less than 6% of the total length of the highly prospective Valentine Lake Thrust Fault and associated splay faults which host the majority of the gold mineralization within the property. 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 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.



For more information, please contact:

Marathon Gold Corp.
Christopher Haldane, Investor Relations Manager
Tel: 416-987-0714
E-mail: chaldane@marathon-gold.com

Phillip Walford, President and Chief Executive Officer
Tel: 416-987-0711
E-mail:  pwalford@marathon-gold.com