Mr. Phillip Walford reports

MARATHON GOLD COMPLETES SALE OF ROYALTY TO FRANCO-NEVADA FOR PROCEEDS OF $18 MILLION

Marathon Gold Corp. has closed the sale of a 2-per-cent net smelter returns royalty to Franco-Nevada Corp. linked to production at the Valentine Lake gold camp in central Newfoundland, for gross proceeds of $18-million. The NSR applies to the entire Valentine Lake property and covers the sales of precious and base metals and minerals. Marathon has an option to buy back 0.5 per cent of the NSR for $7-million (U.S.) until Dec. 31, 2022.

"Franco-Nevada's purchase of the NSR is a major endorsement of the Valentine Lake project by one of the best-known and regarded public royalty companies," said Phillip Walford, president and chief executive officer of Marathon. "The proceeds from this strategic financing transaction will allow Marathon to fast-track the completion of the prefeasibility study in 2019."

Use of proceeds

Marathon is carrying out an aggressive program of engineering, drilling and environmental programs for the remainder of 2019, targeting completion of the PFS by the end of 2019. A key element of this program is an infill drilling program focused on upgrading inferred resources in the Leprechaun and Marathon pits to the measured and indicated categories. In addition, an exploration drill program will test the Sprite Gap. Condemnation drilling is also planned for infrastructure locations, along with geotechnical drilling.

Marathon's continuing metallurgical test work program being conducted by SGS, under the guidance of consulting metallurgist John Goode, is a key component of the PFS and a subsequent feasibility study. The results to date from the metallurgical test work, which commenced in September, 2018, to optimize metallurgical recoveries for both the milling and heap leach circuits, have been very encouraging.

The environmental assessment program is the critical path item for the project and the first steps in that program have begun with the development of the project description. Another component of the project is community and stakeholder consultation, which will begin as a formal process in March, 2019. To facilitate this process, the company recently hired an experienced professional, James Powell, PEng, to work with Bob Borst, CEng, and Sherry Dunsworth, PGeo.

About Marathon Gold Corp.

Marathon is a Toronto-based gold exploration company rapidly advancing its 100-per-cent-owned Valentine Lake gold camp located in Newfoundland and Labrador, 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 totalling 2,691,400 ounces of gold at 1.85 grams per tonne and inferred resources totalling 1,531,600 ounces of gold at 1.77 g/t. The majority of the resources occur in the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits, which also have resources below the current open pit shell.

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