Marathon drills high-grade gold at Valentine Lake
Marathon Gold Corp. [MOZ-TSX] has reported new drilling results from the summer 2017 drilling program at the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits at the 100%-owned Valentine Lake gold property in central Newfoundland. Drilling at the Marathon deposit successfully intersected high-grade gold intervals at depths within the main mineralized corridor with 4.97 g/t gold over 19.0 metres in MA-17-180, 4.55 g/t over 13.0 metres in MA-17-181 towards the northeast end of the current deposit and 9.94 g/t over 5.0 metres in MA-17-179 and 3.91 g/t over 11 metres in MA-17-178 towards the southwest end of the deposit
Drilling along the southwest end of the Leprechaun deposit succeeded in intersecting high-grade gold in down-dip extension of the main zone of mineralization with 5.30 g/t gold over 11.0 metres and 4.75 g/t over 4.0 meters in VL-17-643. Drilling continues at both the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits with a fourth drill rig starting up in early July 2017.
Drilling Highlights:
- Marathon deposit drill holes MA-17-180 and MA-17-181 drilled across the main mineralized corridor in the northeastern portion of the Marathon deposit, intersecting high-grade intervals to help deepen the open pit with 4.79 g/t gold over 19.0 metres including 20.38 g/t over 3.0 metres in MA-17-180 and 4.55 g/t over 13.0 metres including 11.76 g/t over 3.0 metres in MA-17-181.
- Marathon deposit drill holes MA-17-178 and MA-17-179 drilled along the outer margin of the main mineralized corridor in the southwestern portion of the Marathon deposit, intersecting high-grade intervals with 3.91 g/t gold over 11.0 metres including 10.52 g/t over 3.0 metres in MA-17-178 and 9.94 g/t over 5.0 metres including 19.88 g/t over 2.0 metres in MA-17-179.
- Leprechaun deposit drill holes succeeded in intersecting high-grade gold in infill and down-dip extensions of the main zone of mineralization including 5.30 g/t gold over 11.0 metres with 10.77 g/t over 3.0 metres and 4.75 g/t over 4.0 metres with 13.34 g/t over 1.0 metre in VL-17-643, and 9.92 g/t over 3.0 metres in VL-17-641.
Drilling continues at both the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits with the additional of the 4th drill rig which arrives on July 8. The three drill rigs will be drilling continuously at the Marathon deposit, one drilling the southwestern extension of the open pit resource and the other two completing some infill drilling and resource expansion drilling in and below the pit shell for this month.
The drill at the Leprechaun deposit will continue with resource expansion for this month. The 60,000-meter drilling program to further expand both the open-pit and underground resources at the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits is well underway.
“We are very pleased with the continued drilling success as we intersect new shallow open pit as well as deeper underground mineralization at the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits,” said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon. “Our current aggressive 60,000-metre drilling campaign will expand the Leprechaun deposit to depth and the Marathon deposit along strike to the southwest and to depth. Our crew and camp facilities have been expanded to accommodate the increase to 4 drills on site as we work towards significantly expanding the property wide resources at the Valentine Lake Gold Camp.”
The Valentine Lake Gold Camp currently hosts four near-surface, mainly pit-shell constrained, deposits with measured and indicated resources totaling 1,388,200 oz. of gold at 1.91 g/t and inferred resources totaling 766,500 oz. of gold at 2.24 g/t. The majority of the resources occur in the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits, which also have resources below the pit shell. Both deposits are open to depth and on strike. Gold mineralization has been traced down over 350 metres vertically at Leprechaun and almost a kilometer at Marathon. The four deposits outlined to date occur over a 20-km system of gold-bearing veins, with much of the 24,000-hectare property having had little detailed exploration activity to date. Drilling in 2017 is continuing to focus on expanding the Marathon Deposit at surface and to depth.