Marathon Gold drills 1.96 g/t gold over 26 metres at Valentine, Newfoundland

Marathon Gold Corp. [MOZ-TSX] reported assay results on the final 26 infill drill holes completed during 2022 at the Berry deposit, part of the 100%-owned Valentine gold project, located in central Newfoundland.

During 2022, Marathon completed 21,039 metres of diamond drilling at Berry targeting areas that are assumed in the Berry geological model to be composed primarily of un-mineralized waste but are within the conceptual pit shells used in the MRE.

Success with this program has the potential to add mineable ounces to the project’s mine plan. Assays from 15,301 metres of the 2022 drilling were previously reported. These latest results represent fire assay data from the final 5,738 metres of drilling and include results from two previously drilled holes that were re-opened and extended as part of the 2022 program.

Highlights include drill hole VL-20-882 EXT that intersected 1.96 g/t gold over 26 metres, including 25.79 g/t gold over 1 metre, and 5.96 g/t gold over 8 metres, including 22.89 g/t gold over 2 metres, and 1.59 g/t gold over 13 metres, including 10.93 g/t gold over 1 metre.

VL-22-1274 intersected 1.88 g/t gold over 20 metres, including 14.23 g/t gold over 1 metre, and 0.96 g/t gold over 36 metres, and 1.29 g/t gold over 16 metres, including 12.77 g/t gold over 1 metre.

VL-22-1262 intersected 30.03 g/t gold over 1 metre and 13.36 g/t gold over 1 metre.

Matt Manson, president and CEO, commented: “With this final batch of 2022 Berry drill results, we continue to see intercepts of high-grade mineralization outside of Berry’s currently modeled mineralized domains. As a reminder, this in-fill program was designed to target areas of the deposit assessed to comprise primarily un-mineralized waste rock.

“As with our previous batch of results, we are delineating a sizeable domain of quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veining at the base of the mineral resource pit shell. In this case, it is at the northeastern limit of the deposit and represents the deeper extension of one of three northeast plunging ore shoots. This area was targeted with an extension of the 2020 diamond drill hole VL-20-882. The 2022 in-fill drilling at Berry has been very successful in delivering new areas of mineralization, and supports our assessment that additional mineable ounces remain to be delineated within the scope of the Project’s current mine plan.”

The drill results released today are derived from twenty-six drill holes located between sections 13570E and 14910E. The drill holes were located along the full 1.5-km extent of the Berry Deposit, and located in areas of the Berry geological model that had been previously underexplored with a view to identifying new areas of mineralization or validating areas of mineralization previously modelled with lower confidence. Six holes were located in the western hanging-wall area of the deposit, eight were located in the central hanging-wall area, nine were located in the eastern hanging-wall area, and three were located in the footwall area close to the Valentine Lake Shear Zone.

Twenty-five holes were oriented steeply to the northwest testing for Main Zone-type stacked QTP-Au mineralization in “Set 1” vein orientations. One hole was oriented more shallowly towards the SE. VL-20-882-EXT and VL-22-1202-EXT represent extensions of previously reported drill holes.

The Valentine Gold Project comprises a series of five mineralized deposits along a 32-km system. A December 2022 Updated Feasibility Study outlined an open pit mining and conventional milling operation producing 195,000 ounces of gold a year for 12 years within a 14.3-year mine life. The project was released from federal and provincial environmental assessment in 2022 and construction commenced in October 2022. The Project has estimated Proven Mineral Reserves of 1.43 Moz (23.36 Mt at 1.89 g/t) and Probable Mineral Reserves of 1.27 Moz (28.22 Mt at 1.40 g/t). Total Measured Mineral Resources (inclusive of the Mineral Reserves) comprise 2.06 Moz (29.23 Mt at 2.19 g/t) with Indicated Mineral Resources (inclusive of the Mineral Reserves) of 1.90 Moz (35.40 Mt at 1.67 g/t). Additional Inferred Mineral Resources are 1.10 Moz (20.75 Mt at 1.65 g/t Au).