Marathon Gold Corporation provided an outline of the Company’s exploration goals for the forthcoming two-year mine construction period at the Valentine Gold Project in central Newfoundland (Valentine or the Project).
Location Map, Valentine Gold Project. Image Credit: Marathon Gold Corporation
The project was cleared for construction in September 2022, with preliminary work beginning in October 2022. In December 2022, an Updated Feasibility Study was completed, presenting for the first time a 3-pit mine plan based on the Marathon, Leprechaun, and Berry Deposits, with greater Mineral Reserves, a longer mine life, and a higher gold production profile.
The first ore will be delivered to the mill in late 2024, with production ramping up in the first quarter of 2025.
As mine development progresses, Marathon aims to maintain a focus on the exploration based on two priorities: (1) providing higher ounces of mineable gold mineralization within the confines of the existing 3-pit mine plan, and (2) making breakthroughs leading to new Mineral Resources on the Valentine property beyond the scope of the current mine plan.
The following exploration activities are planned for the two-year period 2023–2024:
- A 70,000-m reverse circulation (RC) drill program at the Leprechaun, Marathon, and Berry Deposits, with the goal of constructing a grade control model to enable early mine production reconciliation and forecasts, and expanding on the successful 2021 RC drill program;
- Discovery-oriented exploration in the new Eastern Arm and Western Peninsula prospecting areas, with the goal of identifying prospective trenching and/or drilling opportunities for new mineralized deposits
- Berry Deposit geology and mineralization models have been updated to incorporate 2022 drill findings, including excellent drill results, with an emphasis on additional mineralization prospects within the present mining pit shell
- Revised geology and mineralization models for the Victory Deposit, incorporating 2021–2022 drill findings, including excellent drill results, with the goal of enhancing Victory’s mineral resource potential above its existing estimate
- Re-evaluation of known mineralization showings on the Valentine Property, including the Frank Zone, with further diamond drilling as needed
- Incorporating exploration results into annualized Mineral Resource updates
Our 2023–2024 exploration work at Valentine will be designed to maintain the Project’s momentum of mineral resource growth even as mine development moves forward. We see potential for this growth both within the mineral deposits in the existing mine plan, and more broadly over the full 32 km of mineralized shear-zone trend on the property. We will be starting a two-year advanced grade control drill program at Leprechaun, Marathon and Berry which, in addition to supporting the ongoing mining, will test the potential for additional ounces within the phase 1 pits of the Project.
Matt Manson, President and CEO, Marathon Gold Corporation
Matt Manson adds, “Assays from our 2022 diamond drilling at Berry and Victory are still outstanding, and once received will give us more insight into the full extent of mineralization at these two deposits. In terms of earlier stage exploration, we see real potential for another major discovery on the scale of Berry elsewhere within the property. At the Eastern Arm prospecting area, we are now beginning to see significant gold geochemical anomalies emerging from our 2022 summer sampling, with till samples showing multiple pristine gold grains.”
Full reporting of these results will be prepared shortly. However, follow up programs designed to generate trenching and drill targets in these prospecting areas are already planned. Finally, we now recognize historical showings such as the Frank Zone, located immediately adjacent to the Leprechaun Deposit and originally assessed between 2011 and 2012, as representing additional examples of classic Valentine-style gold mineralization, worthy of follow up.
Matt Manson, President and CEO, Marathon Gold Corporation
Matt Manson concludes, “Programs of re-logging, geological modeling and new drilling are contemplated for these showings. The Valentine Gold Project has a wealth of exploration opportunities, and during the next two years we will seek to pursue these in the most efficient manner possible alongside our principal focus of mine development.”