Marathon Gold expands Berry zone at Valentine

Marathon Gold (TSX: MOZ) has released results of 16 diamond drill holes, which extend the strike length of the Berry zone to 350 metres. The drilling targeted both the Berry zone as well as the ground to the northeast, towards the area known as the Frozen Ear Pond Road.

The drill highlights include 14 metres of 8.06 grams gold per tonne; 12 metres of 8.03 grams gold per tonne; and 24 metres of 2.44 grams gold per tonne.

The Berry zone is situated within the 6-km long Sprite corridor between the Leprechaun and Marathon deposits.

According to the company, the drilling continues to intersect mineralization that is characteristic of the Valentine project. Gold at the site is typically found in shallow-dipping, stacked quartz-tourmaline-pyrite-gold veins, which are within the hangingwall of the Valentine Lake shear zone.

Drilling thus far has traced the Berry zone mineralization over 350 metres of strike, a width of up to 40 metres and down to a depth of 200 metres.

“We are again encouraged by the latest drill results from the Sprite corridor, and at the developing Berry zone in particular,” Matt Manson, the company’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “Our 2020 drill program includes a drill budget of up to 32,000 metres comprising broad exploration step outs from the Berry zone through the Frozen Ear Pond Road and, ultimately, to the limit of the Marathon deposit, which remains open on the southwestern side.”

According to Manson, the area of this year’s drill program would cover 3 km of prospective strike, with additional infill work anticipated for the Berry zone ahead of a potential maiden resource estimate.

Marathon first reported results from Berry in early March.

Earlier this month, the company released the results of a prefeasibility study, based on mining of the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits. It outlines a 12-year open pit mine, producing an average of 175,000 oz. gold annually in the first nine years of operation. With an initial capital cost of $272 million and average life-of-mine, all-in sustaining costs of US$739 per oz., the net present value estimate for the project, at a 5% discount rate, came in at $472 million.

— This article first appeared in our sister publication, Canadian Mining Journal.