Marathon Gold's (TSX: MOZ) latest drill results from the 6-km Berry corridor within its Valentine gold project in central Newfoundland continue to return gold intervals from an area between existing deposits.
The developer has released assay results for 15 holes, completed as part of an 8,000-metre infill campaign at Berry. Highlights include 42 metres of 3.7 grams gold per tonne from 37 metres; 24 metres of 1.68 grams gold per tonne starting at 155 metres; and 10 metres of 3.52 grams gold per tonne.
In total, 14 of the 15 drill holes returned drill intersections over 0.7 gram gold.
Marathon president and chief executive Matt Manson said in a statement that the company plans to continue with its exploration efforts next year.
"By the end of this month we expect to have completed our 52,000-metre 2020 exploration drill program at the Valentine Gold project, including the 8,000 metres of infill drilling at Berry," Manson said. Assay results from the program are expected in January and will be used to complete an updated resource estimate for the Berry zone.
"Given the success of our 2020 exploration drilling, and the scale of mineralization we are seeing at Berry, we anticipate an equally vigorous exploration program in 2021."
Gold mineralization at Valentine is contained in stacked quartz-tourmaline-pyrite-gold veins. At the Leprechaun and Marathon deposits, and at the Berry zone, envelopes are formed within the host rocks on the hanging wall of the Valentine Lake shear zone.
Craig Stanley of Raymond James believes that "Marathon is a likely acquisition target given a large resource in mining-friendly Newfoundland, relatively low capex, long mine life, large land position and diversified shareholder base." Stanley has an outperform rating on the stock.
The Valentine project features four shear-zone hosted gold deposits within a 20-km-long trend. Measured and indicated resources stand at 54.9 million tonnes at 1.75 grams gold for a total of 3.1 million oz., with additional inferred resources of 16.8 million tonnes at 1.78 grams gold for a further 1 million ounces.
In April, the company released a prefeasibility study for Valentine, which outlines a 12-year open pit and conventional milling operation producing an average of 175,000 oz. gold annually in the first nine years of operation.
- This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal, part of Glacier Resource Innovation Group.