Assays Out! Marathon Gold Reports Additional Positive Drill Results from the Sprite Corridor at the Valentine Gold Project
TORONTO, April 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marathon Gold Corporation (“Marathon” or the “Company”; TSX: MOZ) is pleased to report additional drill results from recent exploration drilling at the Valentine Gold Project, central Newfoundland (the “Project”). These latest results represent fire assay data from sixteen drill holes located in the high priority Berry Zone area and northeastwards along an 850 metre strike length towards the Frozen Ear Pond Road. These were the last exploration holes completed prior to the COVID-19 related closure of the exploration camp on March 14, 2020.
Highlights include:
VL-20-806 intersected 8.06 g/t Au over 14.0 metres, including 21.94 g/t Au over 3.0 metres and 13.61 g/t Au over 1.0 metre;
VL-20-813 intersected 8.03 g/t Au over 12.0 metres, including 16.90 g/t Au over 2.0 metres and 36.11 g/t Au over 1.0 metre;
VL-20-804 intersected 2.44 g/t Au over 24.0 metres, including 10.79 g/t Au over 3.0 metres;
VL-20-815 intersected 1.79 g/t Au over 21.0 metres, including 6.05 g/t Au over 2.0 metres and 4.61 g/t Au over 2.0 metres, and 1.26 g/t Au over 18.0 metres, including 3.80 g/t Au over 2.0 metres, and 2.16 g/t Au over 7.0 metres, including 9.69 g/t Au over 1.0 metre;
VL-20-803 intersected 13.32 g/t Au over 5.0 metres, including 31.90 g/t Au over 2.0 metres, and 2.58 g/t Au over 5.0 metres, and 2.26 g/t Au over 6.0 metres; and,
VL-20-816 intersected 2.39 g/t Au over 11.0 metres, including 9.93 g/t Au over 1.0 metre and 1.18 g/t Au over 13.0 metres, and 1.64 g/t Au over 9.0 metres, including 7.11 g/t Au over 1.0 metre.
All quoted intersections comprise uncut gold assays in core lengths. All significant assay intervals are reported in Table 1.
Exploration drilling in the six kilometre long Sprite Corridor between the Leprechaun and Marathon Deposits is continuing to outline “Main Zone”-type mineralization of a type characteristic of the Valentine Gold Project, with shallowly SW dipping, en-echelon stacked Quartz-Tourmaline-Pyrite-Gold (“QTP-Au”) veins contained within steeply NW dipping envelopes in the hanging-wall of the Valentine Lake Shear Zone (Figure 1). In the new Berry Zone (Figure 1), the mineralized envelope appears bound on the northwest side by sheared mafic dykes, is up to 40 metres wide, extends from surface to a depth of over 200 metres, and has now been drilled on multiple sections over more than 350 metres of strike extent.
Matt Manson, President & CEO commented: “We are again encouraged by the latest drill results from the Sprite Corridor, and at the developing Berry Zone in particular. When our camp was closed on March 14, 2020, we had completed 5,007 metres in 24 drill holes in the Sprite Corridor. Our 2020 drill program includes a drill budget of up to 32,000 metres comprising broad exploration step outs from the Berry Zone through the Frozen Ear Pond Road and ultimately to the limit of the Marathon Deposit, which remains open on the southwestern side. This is a total strike length of approximately three kilometres of high exploration potential. Completing this plan will be our priority when we return to drilling. However, additional in-fill drilling at the Berry Zone to confirm the continuity of mineralization and, potentially, the area’s first Mineral Resource, is now warranted.”
The latest sixteen drill holes represent oblique drilling across the dip of the Main Zone envelope towards the SE (such as VL-20-803, 804, 806 and 813) or down the dip of the Main Zone envelope steeply towards the NW, such as VL-20-815, 817 and 817 (Figure 2, and sections 13560E and 13700E on Figures 3 and 4 respectively). Each of the sixteen holes returned drill intersections of varying length with gold grades above the 0.3 g/t Au cut-off used in the January 2020 Mineral Resource Estimate for the Project.
Table 1: Significant assay intervals, Sprite Corridor, Valentine Gold Project
DDH Section Az Dip From To Core
Length
(m) True
Thickness
(m) Gold g/t Gold g/t
(cut)
VL-20-802 13600 163 -44 93 96 3 2.1 1.37
VL-20-803 13650 163 -44 15 20 5 3.5 13.32 11.61
including 17 19 2 1.4 31.90 27.63
53 56 3 2.1 0.92
174 179 5 3.5 2.58
188 194 6 4.2 2.26
VL-20-804 13700 163 -50 178 182 4 2.8 0.83
223 247 24 16.8 2.44
including 238 241 3 2.1 10.79
VL-20-805 13700 163 -44 107 110 3 2.1 0.58
128 131 3 2.1 1.43
VL-20-806 13730 163 -45 13 20 7 4.9 1.27
26 29 3 2.1 1.51
155 169 14 9.8 8.06
including 155 158 3 2.1 21.94
including 167 168 1 0.7 13.61
VL-20-807 13900 163 -45 51 54 3 2.1 0.79
VL-20-808 14000 163 -44 71 74 3 2.1 0.97
148 154 6 4.2 2.97
including 150 151 1 0.7 8.36
VL-20-809 14050 163 -45 87 90 3 2.1 0.67
VL-20-810 14150 163 -45 151 154 3 2.1 12.41
VL-20-811 14200 163 -45 64 67 3 2.1 1.32
76 82 6 4.2 1.75
VL-20-812 13440 163 -44 12 15 3 2.1 2.28
107 110 3 2.1 1.23
191 194 3 2.1 2.00
VL-20-813 13380 163 -69 165 177 12 10.2 8.03
including 168 170 2 1.7 16.90
including 175 176 1 0.9 36.11
183 186 3 2.6 0.92
VL-20-814 13480 343 -78 76 80 4 3.8 1.06
VL-20-815 13560 343 -80 11 14 3 2.9 0.78
29 32 3 2.9 0.93
41 44 3 2.9 3.02
57 78 21 20.0 1.79
including 59 61 2 1.9 4.61
including 69 71 2 1.9 6.05
83 86 3 2.9 1.14
90 93 3 2.9 0.89
98 116 18 17.1 1.26
including 98 100 2 1.9 3.80
128 132 4 3.8 1.71
137 140 3 2.9 3.49
150 157 7 6.7 2.16
including 152 153 1 1.0 9.69
166 169 3 2.9 1.03
190 193 3 2.9 2.31
VL-20-816 13520 343 -74 61 65 4 3.6 1.11
83 94 11 9.9 2.39
including 87 88 1 0.9 9.93
137 140 3 2.7 0.97
161 174 13 11.7 1.18
181 185 4 3.6 1.28
202 211 9 8.1 1.64
including 202 203 1 0.9 7.11
216 219 3 2.7 1.06
230 234 4 3.6 1.06
258 261 3 2.7 1.08
VL-20-817 13480 343 -84 101 104 3 2.9 1.65
110 113 3 2.9 2.35
118 124 6 5.7 1.95
131 134 3 2.9 2.09
142 146 4 3.8 1.35
Figure 1: Priority Areas for 2020 Exploration Drilling, Valentine Gold Project. (See News Release Dated February 3, 2020). https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/84151401-07c2-43a8-b29c-b7c1a65f5933
Figure 2: Location of the 2020 Sprite Corridor exploration drill hole collars VL-20-802 to VL-20-817. Note sections 13,560E and 13,700E. (See news releases dated December 18, 2019 and March 2, 2020 for results relating to cross sections 13,410E and 13,500E respectively). https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f12382c9-38e7-4ecb-bc5f-4acb77b015e8
Figure 3: Cross section 13,560E (View NE) Sprite Corridor, Valentine Gold Project. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/af7cb13a-e471-4aa6-be36-cb38761ac54e
Figure 4: Cross section 13,700E (View NE) Sprite Corridor, Valentine Gold Project. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3f0e86c1-9433-4388-b15f-d800a82a9cd1
Qualified Person
Disclosure of a scientific or technical nature in this news release was prepared under the supervision of Sherry Dunsworth, MSc., P.Geo. (NL), the Senior VP of Exploration and a qualified person under National Instrument (“NI”) 43-101.
Quality Assurance-Quality Control (“QA/QC”)