Marathon's Step-out Drilling in NE end of Marathon Deposit Open Pit Hits 3.16 g/t Au over 20 meters with 8.94 g/t Au over 5 meters, Valentine Lake Gold Camp, Newfoundland

Highlights:

Figure 1. Location of drill hole collars MA-18-265 to MA-18-276, Marathon Deposit.

These are great results from new step-out drill holes drilled along the northeast end of the Marathon Deposit. These drill holes have succeeded in both cutting across and extending to the northeast along strike the mineralization at Marathon Deposit.

• 3.16 g/t Au over 20.0 meters with 8.94 g/t Au over 5.0 meters in MA-18-270
• 2.57 g/t Au over 8.0 meters with 15.15 g/t Au over 1.0 meters in MA-18-276
• 3.44 g/t Au over 6.0 meters with 9.14 g/t Au over 1.0 meters in MA-18-273
• Drills holes designed to further define the outer margins of the main mineralized corridor have succeeded in hitting numerous zones of QTP-Au veining including 5.50 g/t Au over 4.0 meters with 9.28 g/t Au over 2.0 meters in MA-18-267.
• The 15,000-meter winter drilling campaign continues with 3 drill rigs exploring untested areas along strike to the NE and SW of the Marathon Deposit as well as along the high-potential, 3.5 km long stretch of bog and overburden covered ground located between the Marathon and Sprite Deposits.
• The PEA is progressing on schedule with a projected release in Q2 2018. These new drill results for the Marathon Deposit will be included in a resource update which will be included in the PEA.

TORONTO, March 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marathon Gold Corporation (“Marathon” or the “Company”) (TSX:MOZ) Marathon Gold Corporation is pleased to report these positive drill results at the company’s 100% owned Valentine Lake Gold Camp, central Newfoundland. The step-out drill holes along the northeast end of the Marathon Deposit (Figure 1) have intersected an abundance of en-echlon stacked QTP-Au veining, thereby pushing the extents of the main mineralized corridor further along strike to the northeast and also further expanding the resource within the boundary of the open pit. Drill holes in the south-central portion of the mineralized corridor (Figure 1) have penetrated along the outer edges of the mineralized corridor; succeeding in discovering significant new QTP-Au veining and expanding the lateral extents of the main mineralized corridor.

“The Marathon Deposit keeps growing in size as continued drilling intersects QTP veining and high-grade gold along strike to the northeast as well as along the outer margins of the mineralized corridor. Current drilling at the Marathon Deposit is extending the mineralized corridor in both the northeast and southwest direction as we continue resource growth at the Valentine Gold Camp,” said Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon Gold. “We are excited by the continued success of our exploration drilling as we also progress with our PEA which will be released in Q2 2018.”

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

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f8486729-5f62-4c36-96e7-1ea6052e0ad5

Figure 1. Location of drill hole collars MA-18-265 to MA-18-276, Marathon Deposit.

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 (75-80% of core length).

About Marathon

Marathon is a Toronto based gold exploration company rapidly advancing its 100% owned Valentine Lake Gold Camp located in Newfoundland, one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world. The Valentine Lake Gold Camp currently hosts four near-surface, mainly pit-shell constrained, deposits with measured and indicated resources totaling 1,846,500 oz. of gold at 1.88 g/t and inferred resources totaling 1,011,700 oz. of gold at 1.65 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-kilometer system of gold bearing veins, with much of the 24,000-hectare property having had little detailed exploration activity to date. Drilling in winter 2018 is continuing to focus on expanding the Marathon Deposit at surface and to depth as well as exploration drilling along the boggy covered area between the Marathon and Sprite Deposits.

The Valentine Lake Gold Camp is accessible by year-round road and is located in close proximity to Newfoundland’s 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 Lake Gold Camp please visit www.marathon-gold.com.

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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.