Marathon Gold drills 4.04 g/t gold over 11 metres at Valentine, Newfoundland
Marathon Gold Corp. [MOZ-TSX; MGDPF-OTCQX] reported the latest drill assay results from its 100%-owned Valentine gold project in central Newfoundland. These results represent 2021 drilling at the Victory and Sprite Deposits, and in the area of the proposed Marathon Waste Rock Facility (MWRF). Taken together, these new data indicate the wide prevalence of gold mineralization at the Project outside of the confines of the mineral resources currently estimated at the Marathon, Leprechaun and Berry Deposits.
The latest drill results represent fire assay data from 22 diamond drill holes completed at the Victory Deposit, 16 holes completed at the Sprite Deposit, and 21 holes completed at the MWRF. The Victory and Sprite drilling was completed as part of the 2021 exploration program at the Project, while the MWRF drilling was completed as part of the 2021 condemnation program.
Highlights include drill hole VGD-21-071 (Victory) that intersected 4.04 g/t gold over 11 metres, including 36.70 g/t gold over 1 metre. Hole VGD-21-064 (Victory) intersected 2.05 g/t gold over 9 metres, including 10.00 g/t gold over 1 metre, and 2.50 g/t gold over 5 metres, and 0.94 g/t gold over 14 metres.
Hole VGD-21-078 (Victory) intersected 0.88 g/t gold over 33 metres. Hole MA-C-21-032 (MWRF) intersected 3.02 g/t gold over 19 metres, including 43.50 g/t gold over 1 metre. Hole MA-C-21-044 (MWRF) intersected 1.25 g/t gold over 26 metres.
MA-C-21-032 (MWRF) intersected 1.56 g/t gold over 19 metres, including 12.44 g/t gold over 1 metre. Hole MA-C-21-025 (MWRF) intersected 101.94 g/t gold over 1 metre.
Matt Manson, President and CEO, commented: “The principal focus of our current exploration at Valentine is infill drilling at our Berry Deposit which has the potential to add a meaningful quantity of future gold resources to the project’s mine plan. The results presented today are from our 2021 drilling at the Victory and Sprite deposits, which reflect our efforts to identify additional areas of concentrated gold mineralization. We are particularly encouraged by the Victory area, where we are delineating an extensive system of alteration and gold mineralizing fluids over a broad area. This merits additional drilling in 2022. The mineralization at Sprite, as well as at the proposed site of the Marathon Waste Rock Facility, appears more localized, but is reflecting the ubiquity of gold mineralization almost everywhere along the length of the Valentine Lake Shear Zone which has been explored to date. Our 2022 exploration program is designed to bring out this larger potential, with prospecting along the full eastern arm of the property and drill programs at Berry and Victory.”
Sixteen drill holes were completed at the Sprite Deposit in 2021. The new drilling was located in between areas of historical drilling upon which the existing mineral resource estimate is based. As at the Victory Deposit, the objective was to test for a Main Zone type configuration of gold mineralization adjacent to the Valentine Lake Shear Zone, as seen at the Leprechaun and Berry deposits. The holes were located within hanging-wall Precambrian granitoid rocks and oriented predominantly to the southeast. Limited new areas of concentrated QTP-Au mineralisation were found, in part because of large mafic dykes dominating the Precambrian granitoid rocks at the shear zone contact. No further work in the Sprite Deposit area is planned in 2022.
In 2020 Marathon undertook a condemnation drill program of approximately 3,000 metres in 21 drill holes in the area of the proposed Marathon Waste Rock Facility located north of the Marathon open pit area. The site was selected to overlie a large gabbro considered to be non-prospective for the style of brittle deformation associated with the principal gold mineralization at the Project. Gold mineralization in four of these initial holes was observed in a localized area of the proposed MWRF, prompting a follow up drill program of 3,744 metres in 2021.