Exceptional Berry Drill Results Valentine Gold Project

TORONTO - Marathon Gold Corporation reported results from the latest batch of exploration drill holes completed at the Valentine Gold Project, central Newfoundland. These latest results represent fire assay data from fifteen drill holes located within the 1.5 kilometer long Berry Deposit, for which the Company recently released the first mineral resource estimate. The Berry mineral resource estimate includes holes drilled to the end of November 2020, and excludes the results published today. Highlights include: VL-21-984 intersected 2.71 g/t Au over 122 meters including 19.14 g/t Au over 2 meters and 17.43 g/t Au over 2 meters and 16.57 g/t Au over 2 meters; VL-21-987 intersected 1.69 g/t Au over 156 meters including 34.35 g/t Au over 1 meter; VL-21-981 intersected 1.70 g/t Au over 87 meters including 10.36 g/t Au over 5 meters, and 1.66 g/t Au over 13 meters, and 1.08 g/t Au over 15 meters; VL-21-988 intersected 2.15 g/t Au over 45 meters including 19.99 g/t Au over 1 meter, and 1.45 g/t Au over 11 meters; VL-21-977 intersected 1.14 g/t Au over 55 meters including 10.05 g/t Au over 1 meter, and 1.99 g/t Au over 16 meters; and VL-21-980 intersected 26.95 g/t Au over 2 meters.

Matt Manson, President & CEO, said, “Following the release of our first mineral resource estimate for the Berry Deposit last week, today’s drill results are amongst the best we have ever reported from this important new discovery. All fifteen holes reported today are in-fill holes within the area of the new resource model designed to tighten drill spacings. Five of the holes are within the same 50-meter wide area around section 13700E at the western end of the deposit where we reported multiple strong intercepts of gold mineralization last July. This area is now confirmed to host a standout concentration of high-grade gold mineralization. A total of 13,695 meters of drilling in 51 drill holes was completed with three rigs at the Berry Deposit prior to our annual spring shutdown on March 25th. An additional batch of results from these drill holes remains to be released. Drilling with our Newfoundland-based exploration team is scheduled to resume in mid-May and continue through to the end of the year.”

Gold mineralization at the Valentine Gold Project is contained predominantly within shallowly southwest dipping, en-echelon stacked Quartz-Tourmaline-Pyrite-Gold (“QTP-Au”) veins. At the Leprechaun and Marathon Deposits, as well as at the new Berry Deposit, these QTP-Au veins form densely stacked and northwest plunging “Main Zone” envelopes within intrusive host rocks on the hanging wall (northwest) side of the Valentine Lake Shear Zone (“VLSZ”). The extent of mineralization appears related to the size and frequency of sheared mafic dykes which extend northeast-southwest within the hanging wall, parallel to the shear zone. Exploration drilling is generally undertaken in two orientations: down steeply towards the northwest at a high angle to the individual veins and down-plunge of the Main Zone stacking, or obliquely towards the southeast at a low angle of incidence to the individual veins and across the strike of Main Zone mineralization.

Nine of the fifteen holes were oriented to the southeast from the hanging wall toward the footwall contact (VL-21-976, 978, 979, 980, 982, 983, 985, 986 and 988). The remaining six holes were oriented steeply down to the northwest testing for Main Zone type stacked QTP-Au mineralization close to the Valentine Lake Shear Zone (VL-21-975, 977, 981, 984, 987 and 989). All fifteen drill holes returned “significant” drill intercepts of greater than 0.7 g/t Au (Table 1), and each drill hole returned additional intercepts with gold grades above the 0.3 g/t Au cut-off used in the April 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate for the Berry Deposit.

Five of the drill holes (VL-21-977, 981, 984, 987 and 988) are located within a 50-meter long area of the Valentine Lake Shear Zone centered around section 13700E. This is the same area where drill holes VL-20-823 and 824 returned intercepts of 3.33 g/t Au over 120 meters and 3.37 g/t Au over 36 meters, respectively. The latest drilling further confirms a strong concentration of mineralization with good continuity in this central area of the deposit.