Marathon unveils Newfoundland gold estimate
Marathon Gold Corp. [MOZ-TSX; OTC-MGDPF] on Wednesday April 21 reported a maiden resource estimate for the Berry Zone at its 100%-owned, flagship Valentine Gold Project in central Newfoundland.
The company said it has outlined an inferred resource of 639,000 ounces of gold (11.3 million tonnes at 1.75 g/t). It said 89% of the total estimate is an open pit resource of 566,400 ounces, with the balance associated with underground.
Marathon is also flagging a high-grade open pit inferred resource (greater than 0.7 g/t gold cut-off) of 493,700 ounces (5.82 million tonnes at 2.64 g/t gold).
The drill dataset used in this first estimate is still preliminary, with only 42,000 metres included. That compares to 100,000 metres at the Leprechaun Deposit and 170,000 metres at the Marathon Deposit.
Marathon Gold shares advanced on the news, rising 3.1% or $0.08 to $2.66 on volume of 585,590. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $3.35 and $1.40.
The new 1.5-kilometre Berry Zone, which is located within the six-kilometre long Sprite Corridor, is situated between the project’s Leprechaun and Marathon deposits.
The company is seeing open pittable resources along the full 1.5 km, with a conceptual pit shell of up to 200 metres deep and good continuity of mineralization between sections. Drilling continues with 30,000 metres of additional drilling planned this year.
However, it should be noted that the Berry estimate will not be included in Marathon’s core development plan at Valentine, which is based on two open pits at Marathon and Leprechaun and a central 2.5-4.0 million tonne per year mill.
At some stage in the future Berry could provide options for mine-life extensions or future grade sequencing (pending future permitting).
Meanwhile, major milestones for Marathon at Valentine include the completion of an environmental assessment, and receipt of Federal and Provincial approval and other permits. These are expected by the third quarter of 2021, supporting a construction decision and breaking of ground by early next year.
Back in April, 2020, Marathon released a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the Valentine Gold project. It envisages an open pit mining operation with low initial capital costs and a high rate of return over a 12-year mine life, with average gold production of 175,000 ounces annually in years one to nine from the processing of high-grade mill feed.