Marathon Drilling Further Confirming Continuity of Main Zone Gold: 3.52 g/t Au over 45.0m, 2.61 g/t Au over 75.0m and 1.82 g/t Au over 50.0m, Valentine Gold Camp, NL

Drilling Highlights:

• The ongoing infill drilling program at the Marathon Deposit is designed to penetrate down through the main mineralized corridor as well as into the hanging wall and foot wall zones of the open pit (Figure 1). The aim of the infill drilling campaign is three-fold: to increase confidence in the lateral and vertical continuity of high-grade gold mineralization by drilling between adjacent drill holes; to penetrate gold intervals in the hanging wall and footwall regions where there is wide spaced drilling; and to convert inferred into measured and indicated resource categories.
  • Main Zone: MA-19-372 intersected 3.52 g/t Au over 45.0 meters with 16.16 g/t Au over 2.0 meters and 14.25 g/t Au over 4.0 meters, as well as 3.35 g/t Au over 16.0 meters with 18.28 g/t Au over 2.0 meters.
     
  • Main Zone: MA-19-370 intersected 2.61 g/t Au over 75.0 meters with 7.71 g/t Au over 6.0 meters, 20.27 g/t Au over 2.0 meters and 28.44 g/t Au over 2.0 meters.
     
  • Main Zone: MA-19-361 intersected 1.82 g/t Au over 50.0 meters with 5.35 over 6.0 meters and 6.13 g/t Au over 3.0 meters.
     
  • Hanging Wall: MA-19-364 intersected 2.23 g/t Au over 6.0 meters and 5.65 g/t Au over 3.0, and MA-19-365 intersected 1.84 g/t over 4.0 meters.
     
  • Footwall Zone: MA-19-362 intersected 2.23 g/t Au over 11.0 meters, and MA-19-369 intersected 1.93 g/t Au over 8.0 meters.

Program Update:

• The 2019 infill drilling campaign continues at the Valentine Gold Camp with two drills operating at the Leprechaun deposit and one drill operating at the Marathon Deposit.
   
• Advanced metallurgical testing of material from both the Marathon and Leprechaun Deposits is continuing with focus on optimizing both mill and heap leach recoveries.
   
• An Environmental Assessment Registration / Project Description was submitted to the Federal and Provincial regulators on April 5, 2019; a key step in the overall regulatory approvals process.

TORONTO, April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marathon Gold Corporation (“Marathon” or the “Company”) (MOZ.TO) is pleased to announce the continued success of the infill drilling campaign at the Marathon deposit. The new drilling has returned excellent results proving further lateral and vertical continuity of the high-grade gold between adjacent drill holes and confirming significant gold intervals in both hanging wall and footwall zones of the deposit to help reduce the strip ratio for the open pit. These drilling results continue to provide further confirmation of Marathon’s geological model and will assist in upgrading existing inferred resources within the Marathon Deposit into the Measured and Indicated resource categories.

“The 2019 drilling program is producing impressive results at the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits. At Marathon, the Main Zone is being drilled at a spacing of 10 to 20 meters between holes to give Measured and Indicated resources showing very good correlation with most of the high-grade intercepts in adjacent holes,” said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon Gold. “All of the holes  we are reporting are in the Marathon PEA pit shell and the longer intercepts reported in this release will have a positive impact on the resource grade.”

TABLE 1: Significant assay intervals, Marathon Deposit, Valentine Gold Camp.

* Cut to 45 g/t Au, MZ = Main Zone, HW = Hanging Wall, FW = Foot Wall

Figure 1: Location of drill hole collars MA-19-361 to MA-19-372, Marathon Deposit.
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/769401f5-09b4-4f81-87f0-9b8f65aa46bc

A 3D Model of the Marathon Deposit showing drill holes MA-19-361 to MA-19-372 is available at www.corebox.net.

Acknowledgments

Marathon acknowledges the financial support of the Junior Exploration Assistance Program, Department of Natural Resources, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Quality Assurance-Quality Control (“QA/QC”)

Sherry Dunsworth, M.Sc., P. Geo., Senior VP of Exploration, Marathon’s Qualified Person, has reviewed the contents for accuracy and has approved this press release on behalf of Marathon. Thorough QA/QC protocols are followed including the insertion of blanks and standards at regular intervals in each sample batch. Drill core is cut in half with one half retained at site, the other half tagged and sent to Eastern Analytical Limited in Springdale, Newfoundland. All reported core samples are analyzed for Au by fire assay (30g) with AA finish. All samples above 0.10 g/t Au in economically interesting intervals are further assayed using metallic screen to mitigate the presence of coarse gold. Significant mineralized intervals are reported in Table 1 as core lengths and estimated true thickness (85-95% of core length).

About Marathon

Marathon is a Toronto based gold exploration company rapidly advancing its 100% owned Valentine Gold Camp located in Newfoundland and Labrador, one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world. The Valentine Gold Camp currently hosts four near-surface, mainly pit-shell constrained, deposits with measured and indicated resources totaling 2,691,400 oz. of gold at 1.85 g/t and inferred resources totaling 1,531,600 oz. of gold at 1.77 g/t. The majority of the resources occur in the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits, which also have resources below the current open pit shell. Both deposits are open to depth and on strike. Gold mineralization has been traced down over 350 meters vertically at Leprechaun and almost a kilometer at Marathon. The four deposits identified to date occur over a 20-kilometer system of gold bearing veins, with much of the 24,000-hectare property having had only minimal exploration activity to date.

The Valentine Gold Camp is accessible by year-round road and is in close proximity to the provincial electrical grid. Marathon maintains a 50-person all-season camp at the property. Recent metallurgical tests have demonstrated 93% to 98% recoveries via conventional milling and 50% to 70% recoveries via low cost heap leaching at both the Leprechaun and Marathon Deposits.

To find out more information on the Valentine Gold Camp please visit www.marathon-gold.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Except for statements of historical fact relating to Marathon Gold Corporation, certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "considers", "intends", "targets", or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "may", "will", "should", "would" and "could". We provide forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about our current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes.  By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct, and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those identified and reported in Marathon Gold Corporation's public filings, which may be accessed at www.sedar.com.  Other than as specifically required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, whether as a result of new information, future events, results or otherwise.