Marathon Gold Corporation announced the updated NI-43-101 compliant Resource Estimate for the Golden Chest Mine in north eastern Idaho, USA. The Resource Estimate is an essential component of the project's development and is a key milestone for Marathon. The Golden Chest Mine is owned 50% by Marathon Gold Corporation and 50% by New Jersey Mining Company (NJMC), and NJMC is the operator.

The increase in resources at the Golden Chest Mine is very good. The Global M&I resource has increased from the previous resource in contained ounces by 73% to 254,000 ounces and the grade has increased from 1.47 grams per tonne to 1.71 grams per tonne, an increase of 16.3%. The open pit M&I resource has increased by 84% to 223,000 ounces and the grade has increased from 1.35 grams per tonne to 1.59 grams per tonne, an increase of 17.8%.

The first underground resource has also been estimated, which is a milestone for the project. The mineralization is open to depth and along strike to the north where historic grades of 17 grams per tonne were mined. There is a lot of potential remaining to expand the resource at the Golden Chest Mine.

For Marathon Gold, the 50% of the Golden Chest Mine resource attributable to Marathon, when combined with the resources at the company's 100% owned Valentine Project, gives Marathon a total attributable M&I resource of 803,000 ounces at a grade of 2.11 grams per tonne, and the total attributable Inferred resource for Marathon is 237,000 ounces at a grade of 2.09 grams per tonne. This is a large increase in one year and most of it is in the lower risk M&I categories. The 0.4 g/t gold cut-off grade for the Global Resource numbers has not been constrained by economic parameters and it may be compared to the initial resource estimate of March, 2012; the mineral resource estimate reported at 0.3 g/t gold cut-off grade for a potential Open Pit is based on a number of parameters and assumptions including a gold price of USD 1,455 per troy ounce, 92% metallurgical gold recovery, mining costs of USD 2.00/tonne and process costs of USD 9.50/tonne, General & Administrative costs of USD 2.00/tonne and environmental rehabilitation costs of USD 0.20 per tonne treated; The 2.0 g/t gold cut-off grade for a potential Underground mine was suggested by Marathon Gold Corporation and New Jersey Mining Corporation based on their experience.

The mineral resource estimate is reported at that cut-off grade; the quantity and grade of reported Inferred mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define the Inferred mineral Resources as Indicated or Measured mineral Resources. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to Indicated or Measured mineral Resource categories; the mineral Resources in this news release were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by CIM Council. The effective date of this mineral Resource Estimate is January 16, 2013.

Global Mineral Resource parameters: estimations are based on sample composites of ~1.5 meters for both underground channels and drill holes. Grade capping was applied to a single outlier sample grading 864 g/t Au. Based on detailed statistical analysis combined with information from drill hole logs, no further grade capping was deemed necessary; a 0.40 g/t Au cut-off grade was applied for the 3D deposit modeling, in some cases lower grade material was included in order to get a reasonable shape in the interpretations; a constant specific gravity of 2.66 tonnes per cubic meter was used; Resources were modeled using 3D interactive modeling backed by sectional interpretation; the database for the Golden Chest deposit comprised a total of 24,140 meters of drilling (169 DDH and 26 RC), and 186 meters of sampling in 160 underground channels; the mineralized zones at the Golden Chest Mine extend approximately 1,250 meters along strike.

The Open Pit Mineral Resource has been constrained by a conceptual open pit shell that includes Resources to a maximum depth of approximately 250 meters; grade estimation was carried out using Ordinary Kriging interpolation for the Idaho Vein System (main body) and Inverse Distance Cubed for the other veins; resource estimation for the main body is based on a block model with block dimensions of 5 meters East-West, 5 meters North-South and 5 meters in height. Grade estimation for the other veins estimations was based on a block model with block dimensions of 1 meter East-West, 1 meter North-South and 1 meter in height; measured mineral resources include all mineralized blocks with a minimum of 3 drill holes within ~25 meter radius of the centroid of each block, and clean-up of isolated minor volumes; indicated mineral resources include all mineralized blocks with a minimum of 3 drill holes within ~50 meter radius of the centroid of each block, and clean-up of isolated minor volumes; inferred mineral resources include all the remaining mineralized blocks to the extent of the wireframe constraints. All blocks were interpolated with data from a minimum of 2 drill holes; resource estimation for the potential underground mine was based on a cut-off grade of 2.0 g/t gold.